Requiem for Erebor
by TheShipOfTheDreams
Summary: The dwarfs are on their way to reclaim their home back but the journey isn't as easy as they have thought. With misfortune, accidents and dangerous battles they continue where they were left at the end of the first movie. It's about all of the dwarfs, including the dear little hobbit and Gandalf but 'slightly' focused on Fili and Kili
1. Chapter 1: Mountain's Rage

**Okay, so this is my first Hobbit fan fic and it's going to be sort of long story. Like the summary said it's going to tell about the dwarfs journey to Erebor. And of course there is going to be some twists and turns on their way ;) **

**I haven't read the book but I've seen the movie, and I've heard some things that happens in the book. So just you to know, I don't know much details about what they really have to experience, I'm writing things that could happen while they're travelling.  
**

**This is kindly focused on Fili and Kili but I'm trying to write the other in it too, don't worry! :D The brothers are just my favourites!  
**

**And last but not least... I do not own anything about The Hobbit :(  
**

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"We can't continue! We need to take a detour!" Thorin said with a loud voice. They had just got down from the little stone mountain of Carrock and the forest was just ahead of them. There was only one big problem: the ground had suffered great damage and there was this huge crack that couldn't be acrossed. At least not from that place the dwarfs were standing or anywhere nearby.

"Isn't there any way to cross this?" Dori asked with concern, glaring the area for a possible bridge.

"If you see anything, you tell me," Thorin snapped, "but we must figure out another way to reach the forest." He immediately scanned the mountains around them.

Dwalin, noticing Thorin's possible idea, moved next to him and expressed his thoughts. "You think there's a safe path up there?"

"Don't know," the leader anwered. "We don't need to go to the top of it, just high enough to see where the crack ends and then get back down from the other side of the mountain."

"Sounds like a plan to me."

"Okay, everybody!" Thorin shouted turning to his company. "We are going to take the detour via that mountain over there. It seems the only option right now but be careful up there, there seems to be a lot of snow so there must also be ice. I am not responsible for anyone who dismisses this warning and falls to his death. Understood?"

"Yes!" came the answers in a choir.

"Good. Let's go!"

The dwarfs walked back the route they had come but changed the direction halfway to take the turn on their right. The mountain came closer and soon they had reached the root of it. Thorin searched for a clear path but couldn't find any.

"Looks like we have to climb then," he mumbled.

"Thorin!" Fili shouted from the end of the dwarf line. "On the left!"

Thorin turned to see what the dwarf meant but couldn't see anything.

"Right under the bigger rock!"

The leader focused his eyes first to the large rock that was few feet higher on the mountainside and then to little below it. And he saw it, a well hidden hole, a cave maybe.

"Good work!" he praised to Fili and took the lead for the way. It was good there was some young fresh eyes in the group that could notice the smallest things. Without anyone noticing Fili and Kili high-fived for the success.

Thorin climbed to the so called cave and viewed inside. He could feel a cold breezing coming from there.

"It goes through! Do we have torches? Every third will light it and we walk in line. Take a grab from the dwarf in front of you if you must. Don't get left behind."

"I think it's too small for me to get in," Gandalf thought out loud eyeing the hole and Thorin turned to the wizard. The leader glimpsed back to the tunnel, sizing the difference between the two.

"You're right.."

"No worries, my friend, I think I can find another way," Gandalf smiled.

"You're sure? We can search for another path."

"I have my ways, trust me. You go ahead, we'll meet at the place where the forest begins."

Thorin nodded in agreement, lighted his own torch and went in, the rest of company after him; Dwalin, Balin, Gloin, Bifur, Dori, Nori, Oin, Bombur, Bilbo, Bofur, Ori, Fili and Kili. Bilbo gave a little glance to Gandalf who just stayed where he was. It was like Gandalf was saying 'don't worry about me' and Bilbo continued his walking.

They all had done as Thorin had suggested, grabbed from the jacket of the dwarf in front. It was so dark and Bilbo didn't feel much comfortable in the narrow tunnel unlike the others. He just wished he could have been back in the shire, drinking tea from his mother's old tea cups.

"Is it.. is it possible," Bilbo started whispering to Bofur behind him, "that there are bats or.. or.. other creatures in this.. in here?"

"Aye," Bofur answered showing some light with his torch, "it's not impossible. But don't worry lad, I'm right behind ya." He winked eye to the halfling, who didn't seem any more relieved by this information.

They continued walking what felt like an hour, the tunnel route had turned upphill from the very beginning and the dwarfs panted and puffed the whole way, Bombur the loudest. The cold air had got stronger and as Thorin turned from the next corner he could see the light at the end of the tunnel.

"There's light!" he yelled for the dwarfs and even the last ones could hear that.

"You here that, lad? We made it! With none bats," Bofur said smiling to Bilbo who sighed deep.

It was snowing lightly when Thorin got near the exit, the little snow flakes landed on his face and clothes. He smothered his torch and put it back to his belongings as he stepped outside, the rest of them came quickly after him. The mountain wasn't like what they had thought, like the mountain usually was. This mountain was extraordinary, it resembled a volcano; the tunnel had brought them to the middle of it. The center area wasn't as large as in a usual volcano, but big enough and full of snow.

Thorin looked up to see that the top of the mountain's walls were still far above them. The inner wall they were standing sloped slightly toward the snow center so if any accidents happened it wasn't nearly as dangerous as in a normal situation. There was actually a path going along the mountainside and in the distance, on the other side of the open area, was a narrow vertical fissure. Beyond that was the forest.

"Listen up!" Thorin said, "we must walk on this road here, it seems to get us to that fissure where we might find a road to the woods. Watch out your steps and don't make any loud noises or you will be buried in the falling snow."

Everyone lifted their gazes to see Thorin was telling the truth. Far above them was quite much snow that could drop on them any time soon.

The dwarfs chatted joyfully with each others, keeping their voices down not to cause an avalanche. The brightness hurt their eyes, Bilbo was even afraid of becoming snow-blinded, and because of that stepping into wrong spot and falling to the endless whiteness.

As thought of that he immediately lost balance and almost slipped. Bofur was quick to react and grabbed Bilbo's arm. The halfling gave a graceful look to the toymaker.

A hollow bang was heard somewhere in the mountain and they all stopped.

"What was that?" Dwalin asked glancing around.

"I do not know," Thorin answered suspiciously. "Let's continue."

It didn't take long as another bang was heard, this time much louder. It was so strong that the wall next to them shook very lightly. They stopped their journey once again.

"That didn't sound good," Bofur said slowly, looking up for any falling snow. Fili and Kili were also alarmed by the sound and they were ready to take up on arms for any possible enemies.

"We can't stay here, we need to hurry!" Thorin ordered from the front and they all began to move faster.

"What was that?" Kili asked suddenly and Fili turned to face his brother.

"What was what?"

"There was this.. noise," the younger said frowning and glancing around.

"Hey laddies, we need to move on," Bofur called out noticing that the rest of line wasn't following anymore.

"Come on, Kili," Fili said and turned to continue.

As Kili took his first and only step he heard the loud cracking noise right next to him. And this time Fili heard it too. Kili looked down only to see that the road underneath him was turning into a sea of small crevices.

"Fili, what's happening?" he asked as the front dwarf turned to face him. Bofur had heard them stop yet again and he rotated to see what was the problem. Everything happened quickly; as the question was asked, the ground beneath Kili gave in making the young dwarf loose his foothold and fall with the pieces of rock.

"THORIN!" Bofur shouted to the other end of the dwarf line and the leader turned around in time to see how his younger nephew was sliding along the mountainside.

Kili got a hold on some rocky overhang and the sliding came to a halt, althought the ground above him was aiming his head and shoulders with pieces of hard stones. He grimaced in pain when they hit. Everyone watched in horror as the young dwarf was fighting to hold on.

Fili hadn't got the grip of his brother when the ground had crumbled and he now tried to seek for a safest possible way to help Kili. Thorin began to rush his way back. Kili glanced up to his brother who was about 5 feet above him, there was no way Fili could help him that far.

But the elder brother had different ideas on mind. He didn't hesitate a moment as he descended to the cracked part Kili had falled and carefully slided nether along the mountainside. He was just couple feet away when a deep rumble shook the so called mountain. Thorin stopped on his tracks.

"Fili..." Kili breathed watching the sky that was now falling down. Fili lifted his gaze and his eyes widened; the snowslide was coming straight towards them.

"Grab my hand!" Fili offered his left hand to his brother.

"I can't reach!" Kili said stretching himself as much as he could. "You need to go! We aren't both gonna survive!"

"I'm not leaving you!" Fili yelled back and he slided nearer his brother.

"Fili! Get out of there, now!" Thorin shouted an order.

The blond dwarf gave the last look toward the moving snow, then apologetic glance to Thorin and finally took a good grip on Kili's hand.

"Don't let go," he said and the snow crashed them.

"NOOOOOO!" Thorin yelled in disbelief and horror as the two young dwarf were eaten alive by the snowslide.

"Take cover, all of you!" Dwalin cried out and pulled his own brother nearer the mountain's wall. Everyone tried to take the safest possible place and just hold on as the snow passed right next to them, throwing some of it on top of them. It lasted about 10 seconds and then the mountain was silent again.

Bilbo had covered his head with his arms and he wasn't sure if it was already safe to let go. Bofur had pulled both Bilbo and Ori under his arms while Thorin had dived between Nori and Oin. The dwarf king recovered fastest and glimpsed the snow sea below them, seeing nothing but the white terror.

"No..." Thorin whispered. "No!" He started to move towards the place the brothers had fallen from.

He tried to see anything that pointed to be a dwarf but there was no movement at the bottom.

"Dwalin, Gloin, Bofur and Bifur, you come with me for the searching!" Thorin commanded as he began to go down the same way his nephews had. "Balin, you will get the rest out of here!"

The old friend nodded in agreement and lead the remaining dwarfs forward.

The search group of five moved as quickly as they could on the mountainside, reaching the bottom little by little. No one said anything, no one dared. They knew Fili and Kili meant the world to Thorin and losing the boys wouldn't be an option, even though Dwalin had his suspicions.

"Kili!" Thorin called out. "Fili!"

"Does anyone see anything?" Bofur asked glancing around.

"Nothing, expect the snow," Gloin murmured under his thick beard.

"We need to find them! Search!" Thorin thundered as he finally stepped to the more even ground and no one said anything else.

Up on the hill the other group of dwarfs were really concerned about the turn the journey had got, especially Bilbo, who had started to feel little bit related to the young dwarf brothers. Once in a while each of them tried to look if the others had find the boys, but in vain. They just had to hope everything would go well.

Bofur search every inch of the snow that was in front of him, they all digged for a bit because it was not possible for anyone to stay in the surface. Bofur moved to another spot and began grab snow from a large area. Bifur was on his right, digging a different spot, Dwalin, Gloin and Thorin were further.

As Bofur grabbed the next amount of snow to throw away, something hoarse slided through his fingers. He froze and saw a tuft of golden hair.

"THORIN!" Bofur shouted starting to dig faster than ever. The leader lifted his head seeing Bofur shoveling snow like crazy and he hurried towards him, Dwalin and Gloin coming along on the way.

"Fili!" The toymaker said relieved as the face of the elder became to the surface of snow. The dwarf was little pale but opened his eyes. "Fili, we found you," Bofur stated as Thorin arrived.

"I've got his hand," Fili whispered.

"What?"

"I've got.. Kili's hand, on mine." He could feel his brother's hand and managed to squeeze it a little bit, as for a sign.

Thorin and Dwalin started digging the left side of Fili while Bofur, Gloin and Bifur worked on the other side. The second group came up with empty hand so the first ones accelerated their speed. Bofur and Bifur concentrated on having Fili out of the snow, Thorin and Dwalin on Kili, as they found the younger's hand in Fili's.

"Kili!" Thorin cried out as the rest of the body became into sight.

"Is he okay?" Fili asked tiredly when Bofur lifted him up, the brothers' hands separating from each others.

"We don't know yet laddie, but he will be, trust me."

"Kili!" Thorin called out as the dwarf face was finally seen. Kili didn't move, his eyes were closed, lips were already bluish. Thorin could feel the nephew's blood running when he touched the neck.

"We need to get to the others as fast as possible," Thorin said trying to awaken Kili. "Now!" The others nodded and they started to walk to the direction others had gone to. Fili wasn't in his full strength so Bofur had to support him while moving. As Thorin was about to lift Kili fully to his arms the young one made signs of life, groaning.

"Kili, are you ok?" Thorin asked supporting his nephew.

"Mmmm... yeah..." Kili answered weakly, not able to stand straight. Dwalin supported Kili from other side while Thorin took the other and together the three of them started walking.

It took half an hour for the seven of them to get to the fissure ahead of them. Balin's group were already waiting anxiously for them.

"There they are!" Ori shouted seeing the approaching features. "They found them!" All the dwarfs felt the wave of relief rushing through them.

"We need to go to the woods, to set a fire! Now!" Thorin commanded as he came close enough. Some of them left immediately rushing toward the forest while the others stayed to help the rescued ones.

They stumbled through the snow blanket and finally came at the border of the mountain. They could see the grass growing in it's healthy green colour at the distance below them, the forest not far. It took some time to get down from that place, and all the way they were walking Fili and Kili were shivering quite hard.

Ori was waiting for them at the border of the forest, showing the way to the quickly build campfire. Bilbo, Dori and Nori were adding branches as Fili and Kili were put to sit down next to the small fire.

"Where's Gandalf when we really need him?" Thorin mumbled to himself watching worried the two exhausted young dwarfs who were trying to get warmed up. "More wood!"

The colour had started to get back in everyone's faces, Dori was examining Kili's head.

"I'm fine, go away!" the dwarf waved his hand to shoo the older one away, not wanting any hussling about him.

"Kili, let him look," Thorin ordered softly and the nephew let go, rolling his eyes. The leader sat down next to Fili. "How are you feeling?"

The blond one sneered. "I'm good. Better. And... I'm sorry."

"Don't," Thorin put his hand to his nephews shoulder. "You did what you had to. I probably would have done the same. I'm just glad you both are okay, that's what matters now." He tapped the dwarf lightly.

"What the heck happened there?" Dwalin asked the question everyone had been wondering.

Fili and Kili exchanged glances. "Well -" the younger one spoked first.

"The ground," Fili cut off, "it gave in. It cracked, possibly because of the rumbling."

"How couldn't you just jump off of it?" Dwalin wondered.

Neither of the brothers said anything in few seconds. "We didn't realise it in time." Fili answered lowering his head.

For Kili it felt like his brother had taken all the blame to himself and he was just about to say something when someone called out Gandalf's name. The company of dwarfs turned their head to see their wizard coming from the little road they had walked. The old man examined curiously the little dwarfs.

"I can see your journey didn't go well, if I'm right," Gandalf stated as he walked closer.

"When would it," Thorin said and rose to stand. "It seems that we have not much luck in our mission."

"And yet you are all alive."

"For now."

"I thought we were supposed to meet at the border," Gandalf said stopping.

"We had.. issues.. that needed to be taken care of."

Gandalf smiled and took his pipe out.

"Okay, let's stay here for a while, until we all have rested enough," Thorin said to everyone. "You know what to do."

With that the dwarf king sat down next to his kin and rubbed his beard, pondering about the future and what it had to offer them.

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**Sooooo... this was the first chapter! ^^ I hope I'll get some more soon. **

******If anyone wants to volunteer as a beta for this story I would be very pleased! I know there is possibly lots of spelling mistakes etc. even though I have tried to check everything! But English is not my main language so... :D If you notice anything wrong here just tell me about it and I will fix it. **


	2. Chapter 2: About the Magic and Practice

**Okey, finally I got this done! Sorry that it has taken some time, my writing mode has been little off but don't worry! I do know what I am about to write, it's just the problem with actually writing it :D **

**Anyway, here is the second chapter for you, my readers. It was supposed to have much more things in it but it got way too long so I had to divide it into two chapters (the other one is almost finished!). I probably publish the third chapter tomorrow if everything goes well ;) **

**Thanks to my not-so-official beta, sodapoppana, for threatning and pushing me to write this ;) **

**And I really have to confess that all my inspiration has come during Neil Finn's song "The Lonely Mountain". **

**Enjoy!**

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After couple hours of resting the dwarfs continued their journey on the nearly visible forest path they had found. The sun had risen into its highest point and the sunbeams gleamed from between the treetops. Bilbo and Gandalf were walking side by side at the back of the company, the halfling having little troubles of keeping up with the wizard.

"So," Bilbo started asking, "what did you do after we left to the mountain? I mean, how did you get to the forest?"

Gandalf smiled shortly. "Well, let's say that I used some magic." The wizard winked at the halfling.

"Hmm.. Did you happen to hear any – noise – from the mountain?"

"What do you mean by that?" Gandalf turned his head to see his fellow traveler.

"I mean, kind of a big rumbling? Like an, umm, earthquake maybe?" Bilbo tried to come up with something.

"Mmmmh..."

"What?"

"I have to admit that I may have caused them," Gandalf answered lightly, shrugging innocently.

"Wait, what?!" Bilbo hissed and made sure that no dwarf heard their conversation. "You caused them?"

Gandalf noticed the sudden change and frowned baffled. "Why is it so important?"

"Why?" Bilbo asked whispering and alarmed. "WHY?! Because apparently you caused the avalanche that made Fili and Kili fall nearly into their deaths!"

Gandalf was quiet for few seconds. "Oh.."

"Yeah," Bilbo gave the wizard a gaze. "I don't think it's a good idea to mention anyone about your magic there."

"Probably not," Gandalf agreed and they continued in silence.

The road was turning into a downhill, not big but noticeable. Also the vegetation around them changed and all the dwarfs noticed it. They began to lift their heads to see the darkened trees, everything in the forest seemed to become more gloomy and creepy.

Thorin stopped and turned to look at the wizard.

"Is there something wrong with this part of the forest? Or am I just imagining this?" He pointed to the woods ahead of them.

"No, you're not imagining," Gandalf answered examining the surroundings. "We have come to the part where the evil darkness affects more."

Thorin glanced to the distance. "Should we be more careful here?"

"Mmmmm..." Gandalf thought. "It would be wise. And I suggest you don't touch or eat anything you cannot recognize safe for sure."

"You heard him!" Thorin thundered. "Let's keep going!"

They walked among the dead grass, warped tree branches and heavy atmosphere. It felt like something, or someone, didn't want them to be there. Bilbo got goosebumps and shivers only thinking about it, he was feeling little paranoid.

The company continued walking much more silently for hours. Soon they became for a small meadow-kind of area that was the size of four times their group, big enough to walk around.

"I think we should rest for a while," Thorin said as he had examined the area.

The other dwarfs sighed relieved for the pause and few of them collided heavily to sit to the ground.

Bilbo also put down his baggage and sat down, massaging his feet. Travelling around the Middle-Earth had developed cuts and bruises all over his body. And because he was the only one with none shoes his feet had to deal with much more aching. It didn't really bother the halfling while they were walking and focusing on something specific but as soon as they stopped and had the food or rest breaks his feet had the time to moan about their pain.

Bilbo watched as the dwarfs took their weapons from wherever they had them and put them on the ground next to them. Everyone had at least two or three different weapons, several of them had much more. Glancing towards his own little sword Bilbo was so happy he didn't have so much iron hanging on him, he might not be even able to move.

Gandalf was sitting on one edge of the meadow, leaning himself toward the tree and smoking his pipe intensively. Thorin was discussing with Balin if they should also search for something to eat; it had been a long time when they had eaten properly. Bilbo took his sword and studied its shining surface and small details in the patterning; it certainly was very beautiful and made with experience.

He put it on the ground and lied down on his back, using his arms as a pillow. He watched the sky that peeked out in the distance. Bilbo was just about to close his eyes for a moment when someone's face appeared to his sight. He stared straight into the brown eyes, starting to feel slightly uncomfortable second by second.

"What?" Bilbo asked irritated as the dwarf didn't move anywhere.

"Oh nothing," Kili answered and smiled his sweet wide smile. "I was just wondering."

Bilbo became suspicious and squinted his eyes. "Wondering what?"

"If you have anything important to do right now."

"What does it look like?"

"Great! Get up then!" Kili got excited and lifted the halfling by this shoulders.

"Woooah!" Bilbo said being pulled up. "What are you doing?"

"I will teach you how to fight," Kili grinned.

Bilbo swallowed. "You – you what?"

"You need to learn how to defend yourself. We will meet a lot of orcs and wargs and other creatures, you need to be ready for the fighting."

Bilbo moved his mouth like a fish on dry land, trying to protest. "No way!"

"Well yes way, Mister Baggins, it's very important." Kili took his sword and placed it in front of him, pointing it towards the halfling. Others had become curious and were looking the two, even Gandalf was following the situation.

"No no no no no! No!" Bilbo said crossing his hands to his chest. "I am not going to do that. I am against violence, you should know that, Master Dwarf."

"But the orcs don't know that," Kili said innocently. "Pick your sword."

When Bilbo apparently wasn't going to do anything, Bofur decided to interrupt.

"Hey laddie," Bofur called out, "I suggest ya take that, he means it."

Bilbo gave a glance at Kili who was already taking a fighting position. He knew he was going to lose this one and he didn't need any more reasons for Thorin to hate him.

Slowly the hobbit took his sword. "I really don't -"

Without a warning Kili made his first move. And Bilbo barely evaded the sharp steel that came straight toward his chest.

"I promise to be gentle," Kili said smiling widely.

"Well that wasn't looking like it, if I must say," Bilbo answered horrified, keeping his weapon way too high.

"He's not gonna make it," Dori said shaking his head.

"You wanna bet?" Nori asked twinkling in his eyes. Couple others joined the betting and hands were shaken.

"Lower your sword," Bofur gave a tip to Bilbo. "And put your other leg in front. Yes, like that."

"Poor hobbit," Dwalin mumbled to the dwarf next to him, Thorin. "He won't even know what hit him."

Thorin sneered.

Bilbo was feeling nervous now when everyone's eyes were focused on him, and he didn't even know how to fight. He had never fought with anyone, especially like this, and didn't want to fight. Hobbits had always been a peaceful nation, this kind of action wasn't familiar to him.

"You're ready?" Kili asked challenging.

"No," Bilbo answered.

"Good!" Kili said and attacked the underdog halfling.

The swords clanked against each other as Bilbo tried to defend. The dwarf moved quickly around to give another hits and their audience cheered and whistled loudly.

"Show him, brother!"

"Trust your instincts Bilbo!"

"Watch out!"

The next strike caused Bilbo to let go of his sword, and the weapon flew couple feet away from him.

"Are we done yet?" he asked when Kili didn't seem to drop his own sword.

"No," Kili answered and grinned. "Not until one of us is on the ground."

"Well, in that case I can just sit down and –" Bilbo had to cut off his sentence when the dwarf started the attack again.

Bilbo ducked just in time and gave a kick to Kili's left knee while he was still facing the dwarfs back. Kili made a surprised cry as he dropped on his knees. The other dwarfs cheered for this unexpected turn.

"You said you don't like violence," Kili said little confused.

"You're right, I don't. But I will use it if I have to," Bilbo explained, thinking that the fight was over.

"That's good," Kili smiled and rose.

The dwarf made several strikes towards Bilbo and every time the halfling managed to avoid the hard steel, in one way or another. Kili couldn't believe that he might actually be losing, he got irritated and attacked with more force which of course made him lose his focus.

Bilbo trampled to Kili's foot and the dwarf started jumping with his other leg. Bilbo used this advantage and jumped to Kili's back. He wrapped his arms around the dwarf's face to make this unable to see anything.

Kili shouted muffled something unclear and dropped his sword trying to get a grip of the halfling. He started to sway and circling around, finally losing his balance. Just before hitting the ground Bilbo jumped off.

The dwarfs cheered on their feet. Bilbo picked Kili's sword and pointed it to the dwarf's throat.

"You've had enough?" Bilbo asked lightly, with little smile.

Kili groaned, rubbing his back. "Yeah, I've had enough."

"Good."

Bilbo held out his other hand to pull the young dwarf up, and after Kili was standing on his both feet he turned to walk towards the others. Kili followed him little ashamed. Bofur and Nori tapped Bilbo to his shoulders congratulating for the victory.

"Well done, laddie, well done!" Bofur said smiling widely. The small money bags switched their owners.

Kili felt someone right behind him, the dwarf's face near his own.

"Your skills must have got rusty if a hobbit can beat you so easily," the low voice said and made Kili to swallow hard and grimace in his mind. He didn't know what to say but the tiny smile and the whole look in Thorin's face as he walked away was something that made him feel so small and embarrassed.

Fili walked to his brother. "Don't worry bro, he got lucky."

"Is that supposed to make me feel better?" Kili asked unhappy.

Fili shrugged amused and watched the little hobbit.

"You're one heck of a fighter," Bofur said praising. "Did you know that?"

"Well, uhmm," Bilbo felt little awkward. "I – I would say it was pure luck. I wouldn't survive if some orcs attacked."

"But you handled very well the one on the cliff!"

"That was... that was a different situation," Bilbo tried to explain. He could feel Thorin's gaze on his neck. And it wasn't pleasant at all. He was about to say more but a sound of a thump and shouting caught his attention.

"What – " Bilbo started asking after he turned around.

Two dwarfs were wrestling on the ground, yelling insults at each other and trying to get the upper hand.

"I'll show you your luckiness, jerk!" Kili yelled as he wrapped his arm around Fili's body.

"Stubbleface!" Fili shouted back, pulling his younger brother's head.

"Blockhead!"

"Snotbag!"

"What are they doing?" Bilbo asked finally, not able to turn his gaze away from the two fighters.

"Oh, don't mind them buddy," Bofur said smiling, "they tend to do that every now and then."

Bilbo just couldn't understand those dwarfs. Thorin shook his head and wondered if he had made the right decision to take his nephews on this mission.

"FILI! KILI!" the leader thundered and the young dwarfs quit their playful fight. "Be useful and go search for any food you can find."

The brothers slowly stood up, still glaring each other with a twinkle in their eyes. Kili walked to this quiver and lifted it to his back. Thorin was giving orders to the others and when his nephews were about to leave, he called out them once more.

"Take the hobbit with you."

Bilbo froze. "Wait, what?" He glanced first to Fili and Kili, then to Thorin. "You – you want me to go.. with them?"

"Is there a problem with it?" Thorin asked raising his eyebrows innocently.

"No no no, no problem," Bilbo answered and coughed once. "Not a slightest."

He turned on his heels and followed the brothers to the forest, mumbling about being probably killed by maniacs.

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**What did you like? Like I said, the next chapter might get out the following day and the fourth... well, that's another story. **

**If you want to know what might have happened when the dwarfs first came to the Shire, and a reason why Thorin got lost twice, I suggest you check out sodapoppana's story "Strangers in a strange land": s/8967059/1/Strangers-in-a-strange-land **

**There's also couple other stories about The Hobbit, if you are interested. Until next time, sleep tight! **


	3. Chapter 3: Wasted and Boisterous

**Chapter 3 is on the loose! It took me few hours to finish this and I have to truthfully admit that I almost lost my hope because of this... It wasn't just going as I wanted but I'm actually quite happy for the result :D**

**Enjoy!**

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"Hey, wait!" Bilbo shouted and jogged next to Fili and Kili.

They entered the darkened forest, the sounds of talking leaving behind them. They didn't say anything for a while, the silence was overwhelming. Even birds were quiet, only the leaves were swishing with the wind. Bilbo swallowed as he tried not to think what creatures there could live.

A sudden sound of snap somewhere behind him made the halfling turn his head immediately towards it, ready to take up arms. Hard tap on his shoulder made him shriek and jump.

"You should keep up," Kili whispered with a mysterious voice. "The forest is full of evil animals and spirits who could eat you alive just like that."

Bilbo's eyes widened a little bit as he watched Kili walking ahead of him. He glimpsed back to the way he had heard the noise and rushed next to Fili.

"He's just trying to scare you," Fili said apologetically. "Don't mind him."

Bilbo didn't know what to say so he just remained silent and walked beside the blond dwarf.

They were hoping to see some deers or other bigger animals for the meat but the forest had decided to stay quiet. Kili picked some black colored berries and tasted one of them.

"Mmmmh," he mumbled. "Tastes good."

"Kili! What are you doing?" Fili asked as he saw the little brother eating something.

"What does it look like?"

"Didn't Gandalf told not to eat anything we don't know?"

"How can you be so sure I don't know these?"

"Well, do you?"

Kili bit the berries in his mouth. "Of course I do."

Fili rolled his eyes, knowing what his brother was doing. "Really? Tell me the name."

"Uhmm, I don't remember it now."

"Yeah right. Just don't eat them, okay?" Fili said and shook his head, continuing walking. And when his brother's eyes weren't looking, Kili took more berries and even a little bit of the leaves (he knew some plants had eatable leaves), and jammed to his pockets. He was so hungry he could even eat a horse.

They walked some time not seeing absolutely anything.

"We should go back," Fili said out loud. "Otherwise we'll go too far."

"And get lost," Kili smiled. "That would be wicked."

"What?" Fili furrowed.

"Nothing, absolutely nothing," Kili waved his hand. "Let's go back."

It didn't take long until they heard this nearly silent sound of someone approaching. Fili made a sign for a stop and put his finger on his lips. They were all listening very carefully.

"What is it?" Bilbo asked whispering.

"I don't know," Fili answered. "But I don't think it's anything big."

"You don't think?"

"I think I see it!" Kili yelled and pointed to the distance.

"Kili, shut up!" the blond dwarf hushed.

The sound had stopped, but as soon as they quit talking the thing started moving again.

"It's a rabbit!" Kili whispered behind a tree. "And it will be our meal today!"

He took one of his arrows and was aiming already to its way but suddenly lost the sight of the animal and couldn't shoot.

"I'm going that way," Kili said and left his place.

"Kili!" Fili hissed. "Get back here!" But it was too late; the younger one was already walking to another direction. And it wasn't the most silent way to approach the prey. Kili stumbled to the roots and cursed to himself.

"Is he – is he always hunting like that?" Bilbo asked wondering as they kneeled down.

"No way," Fili shook his head, as much surprised as the halfling was.

They watched as Kili drew his bow and shot. But the target wasn't the rabbit he had seen; he hit one of the trees.

"What is he doing?" Fili mumbled. Kili took another arrow and shot, this time far more further to the ground and the other two could see the rabbit starting to run towards them. Kili shot the third arrow which passed the animal by few feet.

Fili was fumbling his swords, only to notice that he had left them to the meadow. Bilbo watched as the dwarf took a long knife from the other boot. He raised his eyebrows, the dwarfs definitely had weapons everywhere.

As the rabbit came closer Fili prepared himself.

"Fire in the hole!" Kili announced with a loud voice and shot, or at least tried, the moving rabbit and fell backwards. Instead of hitting the target, the arrow flew right above Fili and Bilbo, making them throw themselves to the ground.

Bilbo carefully lifted his head and noticed that the rabbit had stopped right in front of him. It wasn't the normal bunny he had used to see, something had gone seriously wrong with this one. The light brown fur was covered with mud and dirt, maybe even some blood, and the eyes... The eyes had the craziest look in them, and Bilbo stared right into them.

The rabbit began to snarl, or at least that's what Bilbo thought it was, showing its teeth and ready to jump on the hobbit. Bilbo's eyes widened and when the rabbit made its move he didn't have time to react. But for his luck Fili had the fast reflexes. The dwarf struck the animal on the fly and the life left the small body immediately.

"Whoah!" Kili rejoiced smiling widely as he came to the spot where Fili and Bilbo were. "You saw that? That was wicked!"

The other two rose up. "What were you thinking?" Fili demanded an answer taking the knife out of the rabbit.

"What? I was trying to get the rabbit of course," Kili answered happily. "I wonder if that was one of the Radagast's pets... He would be so mad if he heard about this. Imagine his face when he would hear that we have killed his dear little bunny for a meal!"

"Okay, that's enough," Fili said angrily. "You didn't even hit your target, not once! Instead you almost hit us!"

"Well, I'm sorry," Kili said furrowing a little. "I can't be perfect all the time. Besides, it was moving. Fast."

"That's a very bad excuse and you know that," Fili stated. "Let's go. We have been here far too long."

The blond one started to tramp back to the camp, the rabbit on his other hand. Bilbo glanced Kili and rushed after the elder one, Kili of course following. No one said anything on their way and the sounds of laughter were music to Bilbo's ears as they approached the destination.

"The laddies are back!" Bofur called out as the group of three came to the meadow area. "We were starting to worry about ya."

"Bofur!" Kili greeted. "My favourite dwarf! You know you don't need to worry about us, we'll always handle everything."

"Like the ponies where the trolls were?"

"Yes! Exactly like the.. wait, what? No! Not the ponies!"

Bofur gave the young dwarf quite an odd look.

Fili handed the rabbit to Bombur. "Here, this is everything we got." The others had found a little bit of water and hunted a small squirrel. It was becoming very poor soup but it was all they had. And Bombur was an excellent cook, he could do miracles. Kili sat down to chat with Bofur and others whereas Fili walked little further, where his swords were still lying, and sat down there. Bilbo was in two minds whether he should join the bigger group or see what was eating the blond dwarf.

"Is everything okay?" Bilbo asked as he stand beside Fili, feeling actually little awkward. The dwarf didn't lift his gaze.

"Everything's fine," Fili answered glancing elsewhere.

"It doesn't seem like that, if you ask me."

"Did I ask you anything?"

Bilbo froze, mouth trying to say something back but the mind unable to figure out any wise words.

"I'm sorry," Fili said and looked at the halfling apologetically. "It's been a long day. And the sun isn't even setting yet."

Bilbo sat down next to the dwarf. "You're right. But something is bothering you, isn't it?"

Fili sneered. "Indeed. I can't remember when he acted so careless and reckless last time."

Bilbo knew who he meant. "There must be some reason for that. Maybe he's just tired?"

"No," Fili said immediately. "He has been taught better. It's like... he's being the child again."

They watched the laughing Kili together, wondering.

"I mean, of course he's careless all the time," Fili said thinking, "if you know what I mean. But not like this, this is... different."

Bilbo didn't know what to say, again, so he tried to change the subject.

"At least one of you had the right weapon for the hunt," he said. "By the way, how many knives do you actually have?"

"A lot," Fili smiled and showed the content of his boots and other secret hiding-places. "Just in case. If you have your weapons only on the visible places, you will eventually lose them all. But the enemy won't search from certain places."

"So, I'm kind of doomed right now, am I?" Bilbo asked eyeing his own little sword.

Fili gave a quick laugh. "Not necessarily. Here, take this." He handed one of his own knives.

"Oh no no no," Bilbo said resisting, raising his hands in rejection. "I certainly cannot take that."

"What, why not?" Fili asked. "You don't have one and I have plenty of them. I don't mind having one less, I will stay alive."

"But – "

"No buts, mister Baggins. Take this and hope you don't need to use it at any point."

Bilbo took the knife slowly, hesitating. "Are you sure – "

"Yes, I am sure," Fili interrupted. "Now hide it as well as you can."

The hobbit looked slightly troubled with not knowing where to put it. Eventually he decided to place it back at his pants, covering the top of it with the shirt.

"Good, now you'll live little longer," Fili said smiling and slammed his hand to the hobbit's shoulder.

"Great..." Bilbo mumbled to himself as they stood up. He glanced around the area and noticed someone missing. Or actually, someones.

"Where is Gandalf?" the halfling asked.

"Don't know," Fili answered as he observed the surroundings. "But I assume he's in the same place as Thorin and Balin. They are also missing, probably taking a walk nearby discussing about the great plans."

"Oh."

"Is the dinner ready yet?" Dwalin called out as he had finished cleaning his axes. "I'm starving."

"Yeah, me too," Dori agreed. "Bombur?"

The big dwarf confounded the steaming soup, tasted little from the ladle and raised his thumb as a sign.

The dwarfs rushed to the stewpot to get their portion.

"Should we wait until Thorin comes back?" Ori asked as Bombur poured soup to his so-called plate.

"Nuuuuh, he will come soon," Dori sedated his little brother. "Besides, the meal would cool off."

Ori just shrugged and moved away, giving more space for the others.

They all had sat down to eat. Bilbo sniffed his food and furrowed. There was this familiar smell that he couldn't recognize.

"What's in this?" he asked suspicious.

"Oh c'mon, don't be so choosy," Gloin complained and took a big mouthful.

"Just the things we could find," Bofur added thinking. "Rabbit, squirrel, some mushrooms..."

"Mushrooms..." Bilbo whispered and sniffed again. "Mushrooms it is then."

He was about to take his first spoonful when someone exclaimed.

"Hey! Look at that!"

They turned their heads to the way where Kili was eagerly pointing his finger. On the other edge of the small meadow were two hedgehogs, walking side by side.

"Well wow, young dwarf, you have just discovered probably the forest's only remaining hedgehogs," Dori said drawling. "Congratulations."

"Thank you," Kili bowed and the older dwarf just rolled eyes.

Nori and Bifur were discussing with each other, but Bilbo couldn't understand anything because they were speaking in the dwarfs' language. He listened hard, in vain.

"Can you all speak that?" the hobbit asked curiously, directing the question to Nori.

The dwarf glanced at Bilbo. "Not everyone. We all do know the language and use some words and sentences but others can speak better than the rest."

"And he," Bilbo pointed Bifur with his head, "can apparently speak very well."

Nori smiled shortly. "Yes, ever since he got that axe to his skull. And we've gotten some practice."

"Oh, well that's.. that's wonderful," Bilbo said unsure whether it was a good or bad thing.

"Oh great, veggies!" Dwalin snapped out loud as he fished some leaves from his soup. He threw it far away from him. "Dwarfs don't eat veggies, who put this in it, huh?" He demanded an answer but no one confessed anything. Several dwarfs drank noisily the rest of their soups and made huge burps which got Bilbo to think about the night in the Shire. He lost part of his appetite.

A hysterical laughter caught everyone's attention. Kili had fallen on his back and laughed hard, nearly not getting any breath.

"What happened to him?" Bofur asked confused. Everyone just shrugged or shook their heads.

"Kili," Fili tried to calm his brother down. "Kili, it's not that funny."

"Yes.. it... is!" the younger one tried to say among the laughing. For everyone's surprise Bombur started also laughing. And couldn't stop.

"Okay, let's just leave them, maybe they'll behave after there is no audience," Gloin said and rose, so did the others except Nori and Bifur. Bilbo put his plate down and followed the example, he hadn't even touched his food.

"What is so funny?" the hobbit asked from Bofur, nodding his head towards Kili and Bombur.

"Aye, I don't know. Maybe they finally found their inner flower," the dwarf answered.

Bilbo stopped. "Excuse me... what?" He had definitely heard wrong, hadn't he? But Bofur didn't say anything else. Voices of a fight caught Bilbo's attention.

"Hey! Take back your words!" Dwalin snapped at Gloin.

"Never!" Gloin yelled back.

"You little lousy excuse of a dwarf!" Dwalin grabbed Gloin's shoulders and tried to push him to the ground, not succeeding. Gloin was stronger than he had thought and made quite a strong opponent.

Bilbo was confused; he opened and closed his mouth like a fish, not able to figure out anything reasonable to say. He turned back to Bofur only to see that the dwarf was already far away. As a matter of fact no one had paid attention to the fighting couple, except Oin. The old dwarf watched those two mouth hanging open. After few seconds Oin started to search his pockets; Bilbo saw him drawing an ear trumpet into view.

Oin took a better grip of the item, shouted something unexplainable and run next to the fighters. He started to hit Gloin repeatedly with his ear trumpet. Bilbo couldn't understand that at all. The halfling made his move and unnoticeably began to walk backwards away from the scene.

As Bilbo turned around he almost bumped into Ori. The dwarf looked at him with very serious face and sighed deep.

"I am the greatest of all among the dwarf warriors!" Ori said slowly and stubbornly. "I will fight against everything that crosses my path and I will certainly beat those who are resisting my commands!"

Ori lifted his slingshot to the air, announcing his greatness. Bilbo's eyes widened a little.

"Yes, that's... fantastic," he gulped and backed off. Ori seemed to get more exited; he yelled some dwarvish battle cry and darted toward the nearest tree, shooting it with little rocks. Bilbo, Nori and Bifur stared at this action confused and then exchanged their glances.

Quickly Bilbo walked to Fili, who was now sitting on the ground and watching the sky.

"Fili, I – I think something is wrong," the hobbit stuttered. But the dwarf didn't response.

"Fili?" Bilbo asked and waved his hand in front of the blond one's face. "Can you hear me?"

When there wasn't any reaction he tapped Fili's shoulder. The dwarf moved his head slightly to Bilbo's direction, not looking away from whatever he was watching.

"Yes?"

"Fili, there is – what.. what are you doing? Why are you looking up?" Bilbo lifted his gaze the same way.

"The stars are just so beautiful tonight," Fili answered smiling.

"The.. stars?" Bilbo hesitated. "There are no stars, it's daylight!"

"They glimmer like diamonds," Fili sighed.

"Oh my," Bilbo mumbled turning away. "I'm losing my mind. Definitely. My blood sugar must be low, I should have eaten something, I – "

The realization hit him. "The food!" He glanced to Nori and Bifur who were still sitting there, talking. Nori was about to put the spoon to his mouth when Bilbo rushed panicking there.

"Don't do it! Don't eat it, it's poisoned!" the hobbit shouted and the spoon stopped right before the dwarf's mouth.

"What?" Nori asked.

"Have either of you eaten it yet?" Bilbo asked eyes widened.

"Nooooo..." Nori marveled and slowly put his hand down.

"There is something that is causing... this!" Bilbo pointed at the scene that was going on around them. "You better not touch the food."

Bofur was sitting on one edge of the forest, picking up flowers and other vegetation and turning them into anadems. He even had one on his own head. Dori, who had also stayed quiet the whole time, had moved next to Fili and was now talking about the most absurd things that the Middle Earth could contain. His chatting partner wasn't listening at all, Fili was deeply in his own reality.

Bilbo could see from the corner of his eyes that Ori was going to climb into a tree.

"Excuse me," he apologized to Nori and Bifur and ran to the other side of the meadow. "Ori, don't do that, it's dangerous."

Ori moved his gaze to the halfling and snarled.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean... I mean...," Bilbo raised his hands in front of him as a defense. "I just think you maybe shouldn't – ah, thank you Bofur, it's.. very beautiful."

Bofur had put one of his anadems on Bilbo's head.

"That's.. very kind of you," Bilbo thanked giving a smile and Bofur grinned widely, walking slowly away.

"Ori, please come back down!" Ori had already climbed up and Bilbo couldn't reach him. The dwarf shouted something about saving the world from evil squirrels.

"Ouch!" Bilbo felt a sharp pain at the back of his head when something hit him. He turned to see where that flying object had come from and noticed the innocently guilty looking Kili at the distance. That young dwarf had found huge pine cones nearby and was now shooting them with his bow.

"Kili!" Bilbo called out and walked to the dwarf. "That is very rude you know, you cannot shoot people with those!"

As a protest Kili took another shot at the halfling and laughed hard after it hit. Bilbo grabbed the bow from Kili and tramped away, muttering frustrated.

Behind Bilbo's back Kili had noticed his own brother and threw one of the pine cones into the blonde's head. It hit with a smack, which of course made Kili more hysterical. After the third hit Fili finally got out of his day dreams and glared angrily at his younger brother. When the dark one didn't seem to stop the game Fili decided to stop it himself; he ran towards Kili and they began to wrestle.

The hassle of the crazy dwarfs had become unexplainable; Bilbo couldn't truly understand what was going on.

"Ori, get down there! Kili, Fili, stop that! Dwalin…! Never mind."

The halfling was getting more and more stressed because of the unhandled situation.

"Nori, could you please prevent your comrade's death and stop him jumping from that tree?"

Bilbo lifted his hands to his head. "This is not happening," he mumbled. "This is just a dream, a very bad dream. I must be dreaming, I must – "

"WHAT IS HAPPENING HERE?!" thundered a deep voice behind the halfling. Bilbo swallowed and turned eyes widened to see Thorin with Balin and Gandalf.

The arrived company watched the scene in confusion, not understanding what was going on. They saw Dwalin and Gloin fighting each other hard time and Oin next to them smacking with the ear trumpet. They also saw Nori trying to get his younger brother down, Ori shouting in dwarvish and striking the nearby dwarf with his slingshot thinking he was using a sword, Bofur singing around flowers, Dori sitting next to the flower dwarf, Bombur lying on the ground jiggling because of the laughters, and Kili and Fili struggling with each other.

Thorin moved his gaze to Bilbo.

"Hobbit," he said with a serious voice. "Explain this."

"Uhmm, well," Bilbo started and walked closer. "The thing is.. I actually don't know."

"You don't know?" the leader repeated in disbelief. He was sure the halfling had something to do with this.

"Well, you see," Bilbo grimaced. "They just suddenly... went insane! I think – Kili! What did I say about the pine cones?!"

The dwarf had managed to throw one of his ammunitions amongst fighting Fili.

"You – !" Bilbo shouted threatning with the bow that was still in his hands.

"_Master Hobbit_," Thorin interrupted.

"Oh yes, sorry," Bilbo focused back to what he was supposed to do. He handed the bow to Thorin who took it hesitating.

"It must be the food," the halfling explained. "I think it's possible there is something not so good added there. But I do not know what it is, trust me."

Gandalf walked to the pot as everyone followed. He sniffed the soup.

"It's possible it's mushrooms or – " Bilbo said.

"It's not mushrooms," Gandalf rumbled with loud voice. "It's belladonna!"

"Bella – belladonna?" Bilbo asked shocked.

"What is belladonna?" Thorin demanded an answer.

"Belladonna is a toxic plant," Gandalf accounted worried. "It is known that it can easily kill a person if it's been eaten too much."

"No," Thorin stated and glanced the dwarfs on the meadow. "Are you sure? Is there any antidote for it?"

Gandalf thought a while. "I don't think there is any..."

They all looked nearly panicking now.

"But it's been studied only for the humans, dwarfs are much different," Gandalf tried to calm all down. "I don't think it will cause death for the dwarfs. Unless.. they have eaten it much."

Bilbo felt their gazes turning to him.

"What does it actually look like, belladonna I mean?" the hobbit asked just to make sure.

"It usually grows in the woods and when it's fully developed it has black berries," Gandalf said.

"Black berries, black berries..." Bilbo whispered closing his eyes and thinking hard. Then he slapped the other hand to his forehead.

"Of course, black berries..." he moaned. "Kili."

"I should have known that," Thorin commented shaking his head furious.

"He... he actually ate quite much of them in the forest. He must have taken some of them with him and put to the food when no one saw. But I don't think he knew..."

"I told you not to eat anything you don't know safe for sure," the wizard reminded.

"Too late now," the dwarf king said. "How is it affecting?"

"Usually the death. But also hallucinations and general confusion. I think the only thing we can do is trying to keep them put, not let them cause any harm to themselves or others."

"That's what I've been doing," Bilbo muttered. "With no succeed. There is too many of them!"

"Don't worry about that," Gandalf said. "Bifur!"

The axe skulled dwarf heard his name called out and walked toward the group.

"Bilbo, make sure Bofur and Dori are good over there and then go to help Nori capturing the brother of his," Gandalf ordered. Bilbo nodded and rushed toward the two dwarfs.

"Bifur, do something with that woozy dwarf over there before he does something."

"Dwalin! Gloin, Oin!" Thorin yelled at the fighters but it didn't have any reaction on them.

"I'll handle them, my friend, you can check the others," Gandalf said.

Thorin went first to see how Bombur was doing but decided laughing couldn't hurt anyone. Fili was lying on the ground, staring again the sky above him and Kili was stumbling and running wild around the area. Bifur caught Kili, tackled him to the ground and sat on top of him. The young dwarf made loud protests about that.

Nori and Bilbo were both keeping Ori down. Thorin had made his way to the older nephew of his and he now tried to get the dwarf back to Earth from wherever he was wafting. Gandalf walked calmly to Dwalin and Gloin, staying put near them. The two stopped the fighting, eyed suspiciously the wizard and apparently decided it wasn't important so they were about to continue where they had left the scuffle.

Gandalf had other ideas on his mind. He raised his wand high to the air and knocked both dwarfs at the same time. Dwalin and Gloin stared into nothingness for a second and then fell to the ground. Oin had his ear trumpet arm ready to strike but when he saw the two other falling down and Gandalf giving that specific look, he just fainted for the fear.

Everything was under control now; three dwarfs unconscious, one held in the ground, one struggling under Bifur and the rest three spacing out for no special reason.

"I think it's good now," Gandalf announced satisfied. "And I think it would be the best option to stay here for the night."

* * *

**Any comments? Did something bother?  
**

**Please be kind and give me positive/negative critic so that I know what I need to improve in these. IF you have anything to say ;) **

**Chapter 4, it will take much more time, I have to warn you. I do have the idea for it, I just need work on it. But I promise to get it here in 2 weeks! **

**Thank you!**


	4. Chapter 4: Damsel in Distress

**Hello again! It's been a long time, I know, and I'm truly sorry for that. I had some school issues that took all my time, that's why I'm little late with this. But I have good news: The next chapter is kind of already finished, it just needs to be read through and everything ^^ **

**This chapter contains little bit of cursing, nothing serious! **

**Enjoy!**

* * *

Thorin sat in his thoughts, leaning his jaw to hands and looking at the dwarfs lying on the ground. They all were still sleeping off the effects of Belladonna. Except the ones that weren't influenced by that plant: Nori, Bifur and Bilbo among Balin and Gandalf. They were awake doing whatever they could to help the situation, which of course wasn't much.

The night was coming soon, the sky was already getting darker and darker. Thorin sighed frustrated, the travelling wasn't going like he had planned; they'd had way too many stops and because of those they hadn't moved much far from their starting point.

The other dwarfs and Bilbo sat finally down, quite near Thorin, and they didn't know what to do except wait for the others to wake up.

"How much more we have to deal with until we reach Erebor?" Thorin asked out aloud. "This is taking too long, we will never find the door in time."

"Don't be so upset, laddie," Balin tried to cheer up his friend. "We'll still have time."

"Not for long if this continues," the leader glanced to the soundless bodies.

They sat silent for long time.

"Did you know that some races give names to their children based on animals, plants and even Gods?" Gandalf asked silently, smoking his pipe. "They believe, and hope, that the born child will have the attributes of that certain origin."

Thorin sneered. "And what kind of person would be the one with name Belladonna?"

Bilbo cleared his throat. "I believe she could be very kind and loving, calm and caring. The name actually means 'beautiful woman'."

"Are you sure she won't be poisoning, evil and a murderer?" Thorin asked venomously with bitter in his voice.

"My mother's name was Belladonna."

Thorin was speechless for couple of seconds. "I'm sorry. I didn't know."

Bilbo coughed embarrassing. "Now you know." He glanced at the wizard, knowing exactly what the old man had planned. The silence was overwhelming and they all felt little awkward because of the discussion just before.

"Should we make a fire?" Gandalf suggested after a while when the darkness had come and surrounded them.

"Oh, yes, of course," Thorin said waking up from his thoughts. "Nori, Bifur, could you – "

"Yes," the two dwarfs answered, one with the common language, the other with dwarf language.

They had picked up some branches earlier, put into a pile and all they had to do now was to set fire to it.

Gandalf walked around the sleeping dwarfs, putting hand on each of them on their turn just to make sure they really were okay. It didn't take long when the first ones woke up.

First they heard some moaning and mumbling and then they could see one figure rising to sit. Thorin moved quickly to the dwarf's side.

"Dwalin, how are you feeling?" the leader asked kneeling down.

"Like someone would have hit me with a big wooden stick," the warrior answered rubbing his head.

Gandalf tried to look as innocent as possible, smoking his pipe and avoiding the eye contact with the awaken dwarf. Thorin helped his mate to get up and then they just waited more. One after another the dwarfs woke up and soon the sun was already rising. But there was still one dwarf lying on the ground, not showing any signs of awakening. Kili.

"Why isn't he waking up yet?" Thorin asked Gandalf, lowering his voice.

"Well, if what Bilbo said is true I have reasons to believe that the young Kili got much larger amount of Belladonna than the others. So it will take much more time for his body to clear all the effects of that plant," the wizard explained calmly. "Don't worry, he will get up. Eventually."

"I really hope you are right," Thorin mumbled and glanced to his younger nephew.

Fili was also there, sitting beside his brother and waiting patiently. Even though he wasn't feeling well he could not leave his sibling. Fili brushed some hair from Kili's face and wondered how peaceful his brother could look like comparing to the moments when Kili was in his active mode. The skin felt little moist but otherwise nothing seemed to be off.

When the sun had finally risen high enough to shed light on to the forest Kili made his first noises. Fili was startled by the sudden change and was immediately ready to help his brother.

"Thorin," Fili called out behind his back and the leader was soon next to him.

"My head hurts," Kili mumbled in pain, lifting his hands to his head. "Why does it hurt?"

"Because of your stupidity, that's why," Thorin answered the question.

"Don't worry, it will go away eventually," Fili smiled. "The pain, not the stupidity."

"Thanks a lot," Kili said and rose to sit. "What the heck happened?"

"You got a overdose with Belladonna," Thorin said and was already turning back to the rest of the group. "Like the others."

"Oh. How am I the only one still down?"

"Remember the little hunting trip in the forest?" Fili asked back. "The rabbit?"

Kili furrowed while thinking. "Mmmmaybe?"

Fili rolled his eyes. "Remember what Gandalf told us not to do? About touching and eating things that aren't familiar to us? You actually didn't obey."

"Hey, it wasn't my fault!"

"Yeah right," Fili rose up to stand. "Now get up, everyone is waiting for us."

Kili grabbed the hand his brother was offering to him.

Thorin had made sure the dwarfs were alright and the focus was now on the leader, they were waiting what the king had to say.

"I know you all are little tired and maybe not feeling like it's your best day in your life but I hope you understand why we need to start moving as soon as possible."

He took a short break to see the reactions.

"The dawn has just passed and we have the whole day in our use," Thorin thundered. "We are still far away from our home but we are definitely closer day by day. We will reach our destination in a matter of weeks! We don't have time to waste, are you with me?"

The dwarfs cheered in one voice, surely ready to continue the journey. They gathered as a group, the few belongings on their backs or hands and went to the forest.

"Uhm, Fili?" Kili whispered to his brother. "What is Belladonna?" The question had burned his mind ever since Thorin had mentioned the name.

"Are you serious?" Fili answered with a question. Kili made a face that said 'I don't know what it is, I have never heard so could you just tell me'.

"Haven't you listened anything mother has taughted us?"

"Well, I wasn't much interested in such things back then..."

"Neither you are now."

"Please?"

Fili sighed. "Belladonna is a plant."

"Right, of course," Kili said furrowing.

"What did you think it was?"

"You mentioned the rabbit earlier..."

And Fili just burst out laughing.

Their proceeding in the unfamiliar environment wasn't going too quickly. They stumbled and made false steps all the time, once even got stuck in a swamp. Or actually, all of them didn't, only one dwarf. But to everyone's surprise it was neither of the young brothers, Fili or Kili, but the third youngest bookworm, Ori.

They travelled for two days, only stopping for a short breaks in daylight to have something to eat (which was actually harder said than done, to have something to eat) and to sleep at night. After the two days they suddenly came to a root of a mountain range.

"Where did these come from?" Dori asked and glanced to Gandalf for an answer.

"These are the Mountains of Mirkwood," Gandalf said thinking hard.

"Have we been walking circling around?" Thorin wondered, little bit of shame rising in his head. "How is that possible? I thought I was sure the landmarks were always straight ahead of us."

"This area belongs partly to the Elves," the Grey Wizard answered, looking to the top of the mountain. "I am not surprised, they have their own so called magic here. It leads travelers to walk in a circle, never finding a way out of here."

"Oh great," Dwalin mumbled under his beard.

"The only question right now," Gandalf said turning to Thorin, "is whether you want to go from the north or south."

Every dwarf's eyes turned to look their leader. Thorin thought hard, considering every possibility of danger and all.

"We go from the south," he finally said his decision. "I know it might be the longer way but I don't want to see any of the Wooden Elves."

And so they did travel to the south of the mountains.

"If I remember right, there should be an old forest road," Gandalf gave a tip to his friend.

"Is it far?" Thorin asked while leading his people.

"No, at least I don't think so."

"Okay, it's worth a try. This forest is slowing us down."

It didn't take long until they reached the road Gandalf had mentioned. There were lots of relieved sighs among the dwarfs for their walking got hugely easier with the even and stable path. The sun was high upon the trees, the weather was beautiful but not as warm as it could have been. Bilbo admired the forest even though it wasn't on its best, but the hobbits never left their homes so everything he saw on this journey was very new to him. And very interesting.

At the distance was suddenly heard some noise, Thorin stopped. They all went silent and wondered why they weren't moving forward. Thorin raised his hand and listened. Someone was definitely approaching them, fast!

Thorin could see two huge rocks, sizes of a half crag, on both sides of the road and he gave the sign to hide behind them. They had to separate in two groups.

"Bilbo.." Ori whispered leaning to the rock wall and the halfling turned to him. "The sword."

Bilbo glanced down and could see the blue light glowing. "Oh my," he said.

Thorin was on that group too and saw the light. "Orcs. Take upon your arms! If they attack we must be ready."

Unfortunately the other group behind the other rock didn't know the fact that there were orcs nearby and Thorin didn't have any chance to warn them anymore. Branches were smashed as that something came from the trees, voices of orc shouting following.

"Orcs," Fili whispered behind the other rock. With him there were his brother, Bofur, Oin, Gloin and Nori. They took their weapons and watched the forest, trying to see where the enemy was coming through. The noise was clear now and certainly coming from the Thorin's group's side; that group had to move quickly to the road's side of the rock so that they wouldn't be seen.

First they saw just a figure, only one, running like escaping the Death itself.

"That is certainly not an orc," Bofur said furrowing. What was moving past them was a woman, a human woman.

"Certainly not," Fili agreed.

The woman looked exhausted, she wasn't moving fast and on the top of that she was staggering badly. The human apparently had some issues with the left foot because she was clearly limping a little bit. She glanced back where she had come from and tried to run faster. Not far behind her was following an orc pack of seven orcs.

"Seven against one?" Kili mumbled angrily. "That's not fair! She's never gonna make it, not in that condition. We need to do something!"

"Like what, lad?" Bofur asked. "Kill the orcs before they see us or reach that human?"

Kili stared Bofur just a second and smiled.

"Oh no.. no no no! That wasn't.. I didn't mean.." Bofur tried to correct his words but Kili was already on the move.

The woman was nearly out of their sight at the distance and the orcs were just passing the dwarfs.

"Fili, help me!" Kili hissed and Fili gave him the helping hand. Kili climbed to the rock, high enough to aim the orcs with his arrows. He stretched the bow and shot. The arrow hit straight the back of the head of the last orc in line and the creature dropped dead.

Thorin could have yelled a pretty good lecture to his younger nephew about the action but decided to save it for later. Four orcs turned around to see their mate lying on the ground. They searched for the shooter and noticed some movement behind the other rock. They made a battle cry and rushed to the dwarfs.

For Thorin's missfortune (and Kili's luck) it was the leader's rock the orcs had chosen to attack.

"They're going to the others!" Fili hissed to his group.

"Great!" Kili smiled. "Who comes with me to rescue the lady? Oh c'mon, we don't have the whole day!" And with that he rushed to the way the few orcs and woman had run.

The four attacking orcs had reached Thorin and the others, and the fight began. Fili and Bofur followed the young, eager dwarf to the forest while the others stayed to fight.

Kili could hear the orcs ahead of him and he rushed forward.

The woman ran. She couldn't believe those ugly creatures had found her, she had been quite thorough with the escaping at first place. Now she was totally exhausted from the running; she was so tired that she didn't notice the small hole on the ground. She stumbled to it and fell against a bigger rock, not enough strength to get up.

The orcs were near now and she tried. The woman stood up slowly, taking a long knife from her trouser bottom and pointing it towards the orcs. Except now there was only two of them, she furrowed.

"Get away from me," she threatened, leaning weakly to the rock.

The orcs smiled and came closer. She knew she wasn't going to survive but hell yeah she was going to fight for her life.

Just when she was about to make her move, somewhere came an arrow hitting the other orc. Her eyes widened for a little bit. Then there came another one and both of the orcs were suddenly dead. She glanced around but couldn't see anyone. The woman started to back off the place but as she turned to run she bumped into something. Or someone.

"Hello," Kili said and smiled. The woman kicked the dwarf to his stomach and Kili fell to the ground.

"Ouch," the young dwarf said holding his abdomen. "If this is for saving your life.. I don't want to be around when you are grateful."

The woman stared the dwarf in confusion.

"Was that really necessary?" Kili asked still on his knees.

"Definitely, you are such an ass, Kili," Fili said out loud and the woman turned startling. She pointed the knife to the other two little men.

"Wow," Bofur raised his hands in the air. "I suggest you put that down lady, someone might get hurt."

"Who are you?" she asked, not losing the eye sight to them.

"Fili, at your service," the blond dwarf bowed. "This is Bofur and that impolite little dwarf is Kili."

Kili finally rose up and waved his hand smiling in pain.

"Dwarfs? Seriously?" the woman asked. She still didn't lower her knife.

"Yes, ma'am, dwarfs," Bofur said politely. "Could you now please put that knife away?"

The woman looked at them suspiciously and finally put the weapon away.

"How can I be sure you aren't here to kill me?" she asked. Kili moved little closer to his brother and Bofur.

"Because we just saved your life," Kili answered. "You're welcome."

She just glared him. "Where are the other orcs? There were more of them."

"Exactly, were," the youngest one said. "I suppose they are dead by now."

"Right..."

"What is your name?" Fili asked gently.

"Gabryelle."

"Nice to meet you, Gabryelle," Fili nodded slightly.

"Why were those orcs chasing you?" Kili went straight to the point. "Were you too contentious for their taste?"

"Well you have manners," Fili said shaking his head. "I almost can't believe we were raised by the same mother."

"Don't blame me," Kili shrugged. His eyes started to sparkle as he turned to the woman. "Hey you, lady, come with us. We can help you and we can have a little chat with each others." He smiled and took steps closer, and was going to grab Gabryelle's arm when the woman slapped him.

"Ow," Fili whispered and rubbed his own cheek with empathy.

"Excuse me," Gabryelle said with harsh tone. "But I don't need _your_ help and I definitely don't want to chat with you!"

"Kili, you really don't know how to treat women," Fili said grimacing a little bit. "Lady Gabryelle, he doesn't mean any harm."

"Yes, he's still so young," Bofur agreed.

"Hey!" Kili protested.

The woman sighed and rubbed his head. "I don't have time for this. I really should.. go.. and.." She started to fumble with her words.

"Are you okay, miss?" Bofur asked worried and exchanged glances with Fili.

"Yes! I'm just... gonna.. go now.." Gabryelle mumbled. She took support from the rock but her legs gave in.

Fili reacted just in time to catch the falling human.

"She's nearly unconscious," he stated, looking little confused about the situation. "Uhmmm... What now? What should we do with her?"

"Asks the dwarf who just moment ago almost lectured how to treat women.." Bofur laughed shortly.

"Seriously, Bofur," Fili commented. "She's kind of bigger than us.. and getting little heavy."

"Can we keep her?" Kili got excited. "She has one heck of a temper! Even Thorin would be afraid of her."

"No, Kili, we can't," Fili said with a serious tone. "And talking about our uncle.."

The rest of their group was now in sight.

"Fili! Kili!" Thorin called out. "Bofur!"

"We are here!" Bofur yelled back and waved. The others noticed them and rushed towards them.

"Thank goodness you are safe!" Gloin greeted with smile. But all of them weren't happy.

"You idiots!" Thorin thundered. "What madness drove you to do something this reckless? You could have got us all killed!"

No one dared to say anything. Fili, Kili and even Bofur lowered their heads in shame, Kili the most.

"Answer me!"

The demanding voice of the leader was too much.

"We are sorry," Kili mumbled. And it was all Thorin could get for an answer at that moment because the woman that was still on Fili's arms made some noises of awakening.

"Who is that?" Thorin asked and the blond dwarf holding her finally put her down on the ground.

"She's the damsel in distress," Bofur explained.

"Why are you still here?" Thorin directed his harsh words to his kin. "She's not our business. Let's go."

"But.. she's hurt. We cannot leave her here to die," Fili said slightly abashed for his uncle's coldness.

"We don't have time for this, we must go now," Thorin ordered and turned to the way they had come from.

"I remember your voice," the woman whispered, making the king to stop at his tracks. Slowly, Thorin turned back to face that woman. "What did you say?"

"I.. remember.. you," Gabryelle repeated, still too weak. Thorin walked next to the woman and stared her for few seconds.

"Gandalf," Thorin called out. "Do what you can."

The leader backed off while everyone stared him astonished.

"I wanna hear what she has to say."

And so Gandalf did. It wasn't actually much asked for, the human had just hit her head, nothing serious. Bilbo was also there, helping, for he happened to have some useful herbs in his secret pockets. The woman was sitting now, leaning her back to the rock. They haven't moved anywhere, the dwarfs were looking little bored.

"So, Gabryelle is your name?" Thorin asked the woman as he approached her, giving a quick glance to Fili who just nodded. "Where do you come from? And why you were chased by orcs?"

"Yes, that is my name," Gabryelle answered, looking just slightly up to the dwarf. "And I come from Rohan."

She wasn't keen on continuing the story.

"And?" Thorin crossed his arms to his chest.

"I do not know why we were attacked by these _orcs_," she spit the words.

"We?" Thorin was alarmed. "Who we?"

Gabryelle sighed and shook her head. "There were nine of us leaving from Rohan. We had heard some... things...from this forest and we were sent to check out those things."

"What things?"

"That – " she pointed with her finger, "is not your business." Thorin raised his hands to his sides as a defence.

"We were taking a short break when.." Gabryelle paused, "..when the orc pack attacked us. I do not know the reason for that. We separated, some died immediately, the rest of us got away. I've been on a run since that."

She rose to stand. "I thought I had gotten away from them but apparently I didn't."

"How long?" Fili asked.

"What?" Gabryelle turned his side.

"How long you have been running?"

The woman closed her eyes to think. "It's been... three nights and days since that event."

That caused some mumbling among the dwarfs. They examined the human which made Gabryelle feel uncomfortable.

"You said you remember me," Thorin said changing the subject. "How so?"

Gabryelle looked straight to his eyes. "You were there, a long time ago, in Rohan. I was little girl back then but I can remember you."

She shook her head and smiled a bit. "Me and some other children, some friends of mine, we were so curious about the small people that came to our city. We kind of spied you all, interested to see what you were. Because all we heard was some stories and we really wanted to see ourselves."

"It really was long time ago," Thorin admitted curious. "I have almost forgotten those days, they belong to the past. But there were so many of us, how is it possible for you to remember _my_ _voice_?"

"You worked in the place my dad was too, I often sat there, listening all the noises," Gabryelle explained.

Thorin could just watch her.

"What?" the woman shrugged innocently.

The leader shook his head and turned to the others. "Get ready, we are gonna leave now."

Everyone stretched their limbs.

"How do I get out of here?" Gabryelle asked. "Which way should I go?"

Thorin glanced Gandalf for help, because he wasn't the one familiar with the area. But it wasn't the wizard who gave the answer.

"There is a river on the west, it leads to Rohan," Ori said as he examined the map he had. "If you just walk to the other way where we are going you will eventually come across with it."

"Thank you," she stated, bowing little bit. Ori blushed slightly and hid behind his book and brothers.

They left the place as a group and soon came back to the road. The two rocks stood still, hiding the few orcs that had been killed.

"So, this is the point where our paths will be separated," Thorin said simply. "I hope you will have a safe trip to home."

"Thank you," Gabryelle bowed after Thorin. "I appreciate what you have done for me. If you ever need help I'm sure Rohan will give some."

Thorin just nodded and he turned to lead his kin toward the east. The woman stood still, nodding to the dwarfs as they walked past her.

"Are you sure you don't want to come with us?" Kili whispered as he came near Gabryelle.

She just sneered. "Listen, little one," she started already walk backwards to her way, limping just slightly. "You can be as cute as you ever want but you just can't get anything you want, it doesn't work like that." And with that she waved for last time and turned fully to the road going west.

"Little one?" Kili snapped. "Did she say I'm _little one_?"

Fili smiled. "Well you are, aren't you, _little_ brother?"

"But not that little!" Kili said walking beside his brother. Then he smiled. "But she said I was cute."

"Exactly, cute," Fili tapped the younger one's shoulder and Kili stopped.

"Cute?" Kili mumbled to himself. "_Cute_?! Obviously she should have said _handsome_, right Fili? Fili!" He ran after the group, asking how hard the human actually hit her head...

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**I'm just sooooo happy I have finally finished this chapter.. gosh, I had troubles with this! :D But I'm glad it's over now. **

**Did you like it? Or hate it?! **

**I really appreciate if you leave a comment for me 0:)**


	5. Chapter 5: The Blue Wizard

**Chapter 5 is up! **

**Sorry to disappoint you who left that unidentified review about last chapter.. That woman was NOT Mary Sue. Try to be more open-minded next time and don't accuse people about things that aren't true, thank you. I've experienced that more than once and it's not any pleasant. **

**Anyway, I'm thankful for all of you who are still reading this; I promise there will be some action, pain, hurt and other things coming soon ;) I had to split this chapter in two, otherwise it would have bee way too long. But I haven't finished the second part yet. Soon my darlings, soon... **

**Enjoy! **

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"Okay everybody, let's stay here for the night. It's getting dark already and it seems like it's going to be raining. Possibly," Thorin ordered.

All the dwarfs stopped the walking and sighed in relief. It has been quite a long way behind, without much of a rest or food. They had walked on the road but decided to take a break little further from it, just in case someone else was using the same way they had chosen. The place had quite good shelter from everything.

Thorin scanned the area and all the dwarfs there. He knew he was asking a lot from them but he couldn't help the situation. All he could do now was to give them the rest they really needed. They had a long way to go, Erebor was still far away in a distance. The yearning of the long-gone home was huge and he could almost smell the ancient city again.

"Thorin?" Balin asked the man in his thoughts. The leader opened his eyes and gave an unspoken look to his old friend.

"Yes?"

"The camp is going to be made soon. Do you want us to do anything else, get some dry tree branches or something? They are just waiting your command."

Thorin had to think a little bit before answering. "I wish they would search for food or anything that is eatable. But not from too far, the forest is dangerous at night." He glimpsed at the sky that was seen between the top of the trees.

Balin nodded but stayed where he was. Thorin hesitated.

"I noticed you had some kind of serious thoughts there," Balin said in quiet, knowing tone and pointed his other temple. Thorin sneered.

"Erebor."

The companion lowered his head in understatement. "I miss our home too. It's been a long time since we last saw our dear mountain so near."

"It's just... It's so close now, we are almost there. I know it still takes numerous of days to travel like this but I've never felt this hopefull about this journey." Thorin shared the look to see if the old mate understood. Balin nodded again.

In silence they returned back to the rest of them. The campfire was almost ready, and as Thorin could see it was twilight already. The dwarfs, Bilbo and Gandalf sat there around the center, talking this and that, mostly trying to lighten up their moods.

Among the laugh and loud talking Gandalf could suddenly hear something that didn't belong to the normal sounds of forest. He turned his head slightly to the left, trying to catch whatever he had noticed. Now there was more noices, like something big moving towards them, being still quite far away. Bushes and branches snapped in a distance and Gandalf stood up.

Thorin had seen this sudden change in the wizard and curiously he took a look for the way Gandalf was watching. And he could hear it too.

"Silence!" he shouted and stood up, hand on the sword. The dwarfs went all quiet. Alarmed at the approaching sound from the forest they too took their weapons and spread to the open space they were standing.

"Gandalf, what is it?" Bilbo asked slightly scared and lifted his sword in front of him. Even after travelled with the dwarfs so long, he hadn't got used to this. "Is it... is it a wolf?"

Gandalf tried to separate the noises from the backround. "I don't think so."

"Then what is it?" Dwalin spitted out aggressively as always.

"I have no idea, master Dwalin."

"This is kind of a dejá-vu, I must say," Bofur stated. "Another lady, I assume?"

"Not possible," Dori said and tightened the grip of his weapon. "Or is it?"

"It sounds a lot different than some sort of a woman," Dwalin uttered, eyes leering the surroundings.

The sound came closer and closer and now every one of them were in their positions, ready to fight whatever was coming. The atmosphere was highly tensed up, Thorin moved next to Gandalf.

"Can you guarantee it's not dangerous?" The leader asked whispering.

"I can't guarantee you anything, you should know that by now," was the answer of the old wizard.

As the approaching sound of vegetation's destruction came close, but too far them to recognize anything in the darkened evening, it suddenly stopped. It was totally silent.

The dwarfs gazed around them not seeing anyone or anything in nearby.

"Did it..." Bilbo whispered stuttering, "did it go away?"

No one answered.

Couple of them started to lower their weapons a little bit. There were no special sounds that would have told them that someone was present. Not until the unknown figure wanted to be seen.

"I found you!" a man shrieked as he came out one of the big bushes from the opposite direction the dwarfs were watching. Everyone turned quickly to face the threat that had come to their so called camp.

"I found you!" the man cried out again, taking steps forward. Fili and Kili, who were the nearest persons to that weird man, raised their weapons; Fili pointing with this sword and Kili aiming with his bow.

"I thought I would be late," the man panted and breathed heavily, eyes moving every direction possible. "Except that I knew you would be there, I wouldn't be late. But still, I feared..."

"Who are you?!" Thorin asked with a loud, deep voice, moving forward from the back. "Who are you and what are you doing here?"

The man laughed lunaticly. Fili and Kili shared a look, this man was definitely insane.

"Who am I? Who, am _I_?" More laughter. "I have lost my name ages ago, forgotten it to the deepest part of the darkness." He quit the laughing and was watching the dwarfs now, eyes glimmering with madness.

The man was wearing a long cloak that was covered with dirt and filth, lost its true colour, which could have been blue or gray. It seemed that he had travelled a long time; the cloak was hardly recognized as a cloak anymore with all the little holes and tears.

"Tell me your name," Gandalf spoke out loud, suddenly appearing to the front line. The dwarfs were unsure what to do but they didn't lower their weapons.

"I can't remember the name. I know you do," the man smiled. "I have lived in the past but also in the future. And because now it's the very last minutes of the future I've been told I know you are the one I'm looking for. I've been told your name and you know who I am. Don't you, Gandalf the Grey?"

No one understood anything he said and Thorin turned his gaze to the Grey Wizard, wanting an answer. Gandalf squinted his eyes trying to think. The understanding hit him like an arrow in a battle.

"I know who you are," he said tilting his head. "What has happened to you?"

"Who is this man?" Gloin demanded for an answer. "Do we need to fight him?"

"No," Gandalf said, "we don't need to fight him. I hope."

The man laughed.

"He is one of the Blue Wizards."

The silence was overwhelming.

"What?" Bilbo asked confused. "The.. the.. the one's you told about while we were travelling?"

"Yes." Gandalf examined the other wizard's eyes. "You can put you weapons down. He's not dangerous, just... lost his mind, I think."

The Blue Wizard smiled. Thorin hesitated first but put his sword to the holster on his hip. The others did the same.

"What are you doing here?" The leader demanded. "How did you find us?"

"Oh, it's because I've seen all this before," the Blue one explained.

"Dejá-vu?" Bofur whispered to Balin's ear.

"This time has been given to me. To find you. To tell you. To pass the knowledge of becoming."

Kili furrowed, not quite understanding the meaning of this sentence.

"Get back to the campfire," Thorin ordered already turning around. "Let this man be. He's not worth it."

Kili shook his head and turned away, Fili exchanged the look with Gandalf who just nodded him.

As Fili was just leaving the place he had stood the Blue Wizard grabbed his wrist with force.

"You will be the chosen one!" the man shrieked with hoarse voice and Fili yelped surprised. Everyone turned on their heels to see what was happening.

The Blue Wizard put quickly his other hand to Fili's forehead, starting to speak in weird language.

"Fili!" Kili yelled and took few running steps with everyone else.

"NO!" Gandalf shouted and all of them stopped at once, terrified. "You cannot interrupt!" He knew what was happening.

"Gandalf," Thorin said with fear and doubt in his voice. He was ready to just slash the head of the unknown wizard.

The Blue one mumbled words that no one could recognize, hands still in the spots he had put them. Fili's eyes widened with horror and he couldn't move. The wizard closed his eyes, tightened the grip and raised his voice seconds after seconds.

Fili made an unidentified noise and dropped to his knees. Kili couldn't take it anymore and he sprinted forward. Gandalf react quickly, swinging his wand in a large curve and hitting in the middle of Kili's stomach. The young dwarf fell back from the force of the hit, straight to Bofur's arms.

"For your own sake, do not interfere this!" Gandalf rumbled. All they could do was to watch in horror what was happening to the blond dwarf.

Within the seconds the Blue Wizard stopped talking, took a long breath and said the last three words, one at the time. He let go of Fili, totally out of breath, stumbled backwards and stopped. No one said anything. The Blue Wizard's eyes rolled up and he fell to the ground at the same time Fili did.

Kili ran to his brother among the other dwarfs as Gandalf walked slowly towards the Blue Wizard.

"Fili? Fili! Wake up brother!" Kili shouted shaking Fili's shoulders.

"Move!" Thorin thundered as he pushed himself through the group. He kneeled beside his nephew and tested the pulse.

"Is he alive?" Kili asked scared.

"Yes, I can feel the pulse" Thorin sighed in relief.

Couple feet away, Gandalf kneeled down to his very old friend. The shine in the eyes had shut down, there was no movement. He sighed sadly and lifted his fingers to close the co-workers eyes. The power of life had left the body.

"Gandalf!" Thorin shouted from the distance. The old man gave a last glance for the dead and stood up. He walked slowly to the group of dwarfs.

"Gandalf, what is the meaning of this?!" Thorin rose up angrily to encounter the wizard.

"Relax, you don't have to worry. Much," Gandalf answered as everyone gave him space near Fili. Kili hadn't moved an inch.

"Don't have to worry? Gandalf, my nephew got attacked by some crazy wizard and is now lying on the ground unconscious. And you're saying that I don't have to worry!"

"Calm down, my friend. I suggest you move him nearer the fire. I'll explain everything after I've taken care of the Blue Wizard."

Thorin glanced to the way the man was laying. "What happened to him?"

"He's dead now. Like I said, I'll explain it." Gandalf stood up.

Kili and Thorin carried their companion together near the fire. Bofur managed to put some soft clothing as a bed for Fili, and gently the two of them put the dwarf down. Kili made sure his brother was as comfortable as possible. He was angry and scared, he didn't know what had happened to his brother.

It took a good half an hour in the dark forest for Gandalf to get back from his journey. Thorin hadn't calmed down much in that time. They all had been talking about the incident and what would it have meant. Only Kili had stayed silent.

"I believe you are ready to hear what I have to say," Gandalf stated quietly appearing again like from thin air.

"Damn yes we do," Thorin answered harshly. The old wizard sat down.

"So hear me strictly," Gandalf began and they took a better position, Kili kept his eyes on his brother.

"The Blue Wizard we just met was once One of the Greatest. He and his twin, who I believe is also dead, had the ability to travel through the time."

"That's impossible!" Gloin cried out. Thorin glanced at him and the dwarf didn't say anything else.

"It's not the actual meaning as you might think it is. It's more like travelling through time in dreams, seeing the past, present and the future. But with the magic there is always a cost for using it. In this case it took his sanity."

Gandalf paused for a second. "Because the dreams are full of becoming events, such as pain, death as much as happiness and life, the dreamers cannot sleep normally, if at all. When you see the images all the time you will eventually lose the track of real time and dimension. I believe he hadn't slept at least for couple of weeks. And in the end it will kill the person."

"What was he doing here?" Thorin asked. "What he did to Fili?"

"Yes, yes," Gandalf nodded. "I think he got the vision of some future and because his time was almost finished he needed to pass it forward. I have the reason believe that the vision was about this expedition, about your future and your destiny."

Another break as he thought the words he was going to say. The dwarfs waited impatiently.

"I believe he transferred the vision to Fili."

"WHAT?!" Thorin stood up. "And you did nothing at the time!" Kili lifted his gaze to Gandalf.

"It's not what you think, dear friend. Please, sit down."

The leader sat down but reluctantly.

"When the process is going on, no one can interrupt. Because if you do, you will cause some serious damage to both of the party's side. In worst case you will kill both of them."

Thorin remained silent.

"I don't understand," Ori blurted out quietly.

Gandalf turned to this dwarf. "You don't have to. Only the wizard of the magic will truly understand the causes and reasons."

"Continue, please," Thorin said.

"I have my reasons to believe you are meant to know part of what is waiting ahead of you. But the Blue Wizard did not have time to tell it, so he was forced to show you. And in this case he chose Fili. Why? I have no idea, but what is done is done. We can't help it any way."

"Is he gonna be okay?" Kili asked, almost whispering. It was the question everyone had waited.

"Yes, I think so. At least for partly," Gandalf answered and took his pipe. "I do not know what will be the effects on him, how he will react for that. But he's not losing it, the sanity, if you want to know."

Thorin breathed deeply inside and out. "Are you sure of that? Why isn't he waking up?"

"No one can ever be absolutely sure about anything, but he doesn't have the ability to visualize the future. He just has the future already in his mind. He needs to process the things he got, that's why he's in deep sleep. But trust me, he will wake up sooner or later. It depends on him."

No one said anything, they just turned their eyes to watch the only sleeping dwarf in the camp.

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**Any thoughts? **


	6. Chapter 6: Two Paths

**Yes, I know... it's been a long time, I truly apologize for that. I'm having a major writing block going on and I really don't know how to remove it :( This chapter was written with a forced will but I did it! **

**I have the idea for the next chapter but I don't have any specific written anywhere. And I warn you that it might take some time until the chapter 7 will come out. I really try to have the inspiration and motivation but I can't promise you anything. **

**So, enjoy! **

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After hours had past, there was heard a choir of snoring dwarfs. The campfire was still burning hot, Thorin was guarding it at the time. But he wasn't the only one awake. He turned to gaze the young dwarf.

"Kili," he said softly, little bit of kind rebuking in his voice.

"Mmmh?" the other dwarf answered with half sleepy tone.

"You really should go to sleep. It's going to be a long day ahead of us, the sun will start rising soon."

"I'm not leaving Fili."

"Kili, I can stay in guard. I will stay with him. Go to sleep."

"I'm not leaving him!" Kili hissed slightly annoyed and looked at his brother who seemed so calm in his sleep. He thought a short while and started to gather some of his few stuffs he had. He put the soft stuffs in a pile and laid down next to Fili. Thorin gave a little smile.

"Sleep tight."

The morning came soon. Maybe too soon for the dwarfs that were still tired from the travelling. But there was only one dwarf that didn't say anything, didn't whine about the hard ground and rocks beneath his back. Because the dwarf had remained unconscious.

They were all eating silently the breakfast Bombur had made: a warming roast made of some animals that they had been able to find nearby. And little bit of berries, those kinds that they could identify. Kili had moved further away from his brother, he now sat with the rest of the company. He was truly worried and couldn't eat much. And everyone noticed that, yet they didn't say anything about it aloud. Not even Thorin.

As they were discussing about the route they needed to take, a loud gasp was heard behind them. Fili arised into a sitting position, panicking and trying to get enough air to his lungs. Kili dropped his plate immediately and rushed to his brother's side as did Thorin, the rest of them starting to stand up.

"Fili? Can you hear me?" Kili tried to get the attention as he kneeled down and grapped Fili's shoulders. The blond dwarf moved his gaze to the younger one, in disbelief and shock.

"Kili? You are here... Am I... It's.. it's not right," Fili slurring his speech, eyeing the company that was now gathering around him, his breathing already starting to calm down a little bit. "It didn't.. it didn't happen?"

"Slow down, bro, I don't understand what you are talking about," Kili said alarmed about the change in Fili.

"What time is it?" Fili asked eyes shut, trying to clear his head.

"The sun arose couple hours ago."

"No no no, not that time, the other."

All the dwarfs looked puzzled.

"What do you mean by 'the other time'?" Bofur asked little confused, sharing a glance with Ori who just shrugged.

"I mean.." Fili tried to think the words. "In which part of the timeline are we? What.. what has happened last?"

"I think he has lost his mind.." Dwalin whispered to Balin.

"You.. don't remember?" Thorin asked swapping a nervous eye contact with Gandalf who was standing further.

"No! I mean, yes, I do remember. But, I also remember other things.. that haven't happened yet, I guess.." Fili's voice faded toward the end. He tried to get support from Kili but the brother just couldn't say a word.

"Last night you met the nameless Blue Wizard," Gandalf said quietly. "And nothing after that hasn't happened. Yet."

"...blue..." Fili mumbled to himself. He closed his eyes and put a hand on his forehead. No one dared to say anything, afraid that the young dwarf would go lunatic. Kili shifted his other hand to Fili's back while the other took a good grip of the dwarf's wrist. He didn't want his brother to fall again into the senselessness.

"Everything is okay, you have been sleeping quite a long time. Why wouldn't you come to eat with us and tell about the things you have seen?" Kili suggested.

"Right," Fili answered, still little baffled about what was going on. He got up with the help of Kili and they all walked back to the camp fire.

Fili sat down, Kili right next to him. The younger one didn't want to let his brother out of his sight or too far from him. Everyone were quiet; Kili reached his hand for food and took whoever's meal it was, giving it to his brother.

"Thanks," Fili said and took the food. He could feel his stomach rumbling even though there wasn't any sound. He was about to take the first mouthful as he stopped.

"What?" he asked glancing the others who were just staring at him. "Is it someone's funeral or what is the matter?"

As he had spoked the company immediately started moving around searching a place to sit and continue eating. It appeared to be Ori's meal Kili had taken and the poor dwarf was now looking confused and little resentful about that. Dori had noticed that and gently gave part of his food to Ori.

Thorin was getting impatient. He sat on the other side of Fili.

"Fili, how are you feeling?" he asked to his and others' surprise.

"Uhmm, fine.. I think," Fili answered little confused about the question. Their uncle had never been a person who took care of people in a gentle way; usually he was dealing these kind of things quite differently, more like in his own way.

"Can you tell us what did you see?" Thorin looked straight to his nephew's eyes, which felt awkward to the younger one. Everyone silenced to hear the long-waited answer.

"I.. uhm.. there were lots of things," the blond one started, lowering the plate. "It's actually quite a big mess in my head right now."

"But you saw something about our journey, didn't you?" the leader demanded.

"Yes, but.. I – I can't.. It's too.. there's too much, it's not possible to tell you yet."

"What do you mean by that?" Thorin furrowed. "If there is something important about this quest you need to tell me right now." His tone was getting slightly snappy.

"I can't," Fili said turning his gaze to another direction. "The time isn't right. I can see the images, feel everything that will happen.. but I cannot say them out loud."

Thorin stood up and was about to give a good lecture to his reluctant nephew when he was interrupted.

"Thorin, my dear friend," Gandalf said behind Bilbo and couple dwarfs, the hobbit nearly jumping to air for the scare. "It is not his fault, you need to understand that. There are rules in magic that cannot be crossed even though you would want to."

"What kind of rule prevents people from not knowing what is ahead of them, even if they have gotten the knowledge already?" Thorin asked angrily, pissed off because of the wizards common philosophy.

"I do not have that information but you need to trust me. You can't push anyone to do anything that they really can't, you need to give some time."

The leader bit his teeth together thinking the options, other dwarfs watching the situation alerted.

"Fine," Thorin finally said and looked at Fili. "But you, you are hiding important information so you better start being able to tell everything. And soon." He let his gaze circle to every one of the member of his company.

"Pack your things, we will continue right away!" Thorin commanded. The camp was immediately full of rushing dwarfs. When the King was in this mood it was better to act quickly whatever it was.

"He didn't mean it," Kili said to Fili putting a hand on the brother's shoulder. "He's just.. stressed about all of this."

"I know," Fili said looking at his uncle.

Gandalf walked next to Thorin, looking thoughtful.

"Thorin."

"Yes? Do you have some other ideas of having his mouth shut?" The dwarf asked grumpily.

"Oh, forget that already you fool! There are much more important things to do than to worry about the not known future," Gandalf shook his head. "I just came to say that this will be the time our paths will be separated."

"You're leaving?" Thorin asked and turned to face the wizard, not believing the words spoken. "Why?"

"Because I believe that my job here is done. My job was only to give you all the pieces of the puzzle, the rest is yours. I will go to the Radagast's, there are things that need to be discussed."

"But we might need your help."

"Yes, you might. But you need to figure things out by yourselves. This request is not mine to walk through, I'm sorry."

Gandalf gave a small smile with little hint of sorrow in his eyes.

"Well then," Thorin tried to smile back. "I thank you for everything you have done for us and wish you all the best. May the Mahal guard your back in this world."

"Thank you, my friend. And same to you. Remember to keep you head clear, don't be so stubborn on everything." Gandalf winked to him and took steps backwards. They nodded to each other and Thorin started to leave.

Bilbo, who had been hearing their conversation, walked to Gandalf looking sad.

"Are you sure?" he asked the wizard, hoping to hear that they would still stay together.

"I am sorry, Bilbo Baggins," Gandalf answered and kneeled down. "But this path isn't mine, I must go elsewhere. You will understand it some day."

"I doubt that," Bilbo said and laughed shortly.

The hobbit hesitated for a short while but gathered the courage in him and hugged the wizard.

"It has been good to know you, Gandalf."

"You too, my dear Bilbo, you too." They separated from each other. "Take good care of yourself."

Bilbo nodded and turned to leave. All the dwarfs gave a last glance to their favourite (read: only) wizard and left the camp.

They soon found their way to the road and continued to the east. Bilbo was in his thoughts, sad for Gandalf not being there anymore. The wizard had been a great friend to him, he was a person he could trust the most. But now the hobbit was all alone, surrounded by those dwarfs on a mission.

The young brothers traveled at the back of the company, keeping on an eye their surroundings.

"Are you sure you can't say anything about the things you saw?" Kili whispered to his brother.

Fili sighed. "I'm sorry. I really want to but.. it's just.. everytime I'm trying to say anything about them my voice won't come out."

"What? Are you serious?"

"Yes, I am. Maybe it's a curse or something."

They continued their talking for a good while. The time flew and they all just walked forward. Everything looked like the same, there were no special landmarks, just dark green forest. As they took a slight turn on left Thorin had to stop. The road divided into two.

"You got to be kidding me," he mumbled.

The path on the right was looking quite the same than the one they had been walking but the road on the left had something different in its atmosphere. The leader couldn't tell what it was but it gave him the creeps. He turned to his company.

"Ori, what does your map say?" Thorin asked and the poor dwarf tried to find the right page nervously.

"Uhmm.. eeehhh, just a second.."

"Ori, now."

"Yes Thorin. Here! It says..." Ori turned the map right side up. "Oh.. there isn't supposed to be two roads.."

"Are you sure?" Thorin demanded and walked to the youngest dwarf who quickly handed the book.

The dwarf king gazed the map for a short period of time and then gave it back.

"We will go to the right!" Thorin stated and leaded them to the road. They had only walked for few minutes when Fili called out his uncle. They stopped.

"We need to go back!" the blond one said seriously, feeling little restless.

"And why should we do that?" Thorin asked.

"It's.. it's not a good road. We need to go back, it's a wrong one."

"What do you have as a proof to that?"

"Just.. a feeling I guess."

Thorin gave him a certain annoyed look and turned away. "Continue!"

"This is not good," Fili said to his brother, glancing wildly around.

"What isn't? Hey, what's wrong?" Kili asked concerned.

The answer came faster than he would have thought as an arrow was shot to a tree near the company.

Everyone turned to look at the arrow, realized what had happened and alerted took their weapons. But it was too late.

"You should have listened to the blond one," said an unknown voice from the forest. "And I suggest you all lower your weapons." The dwarfs looked around them; they were surrounded by men who were aiming them with bows. Kili was trying to react quickly and take his bow and arrow to shoot them but the enemy was faster. He could feel something fly right beside his cheek and he stopped what he was doing.

"If I were you I wouldn't do that," the man said again. The group of archers came closer, the dwarfs didn't have any escape route.

"Well well, what have we here?" The man scanned the group carefully, smile on his lips. "Bunch of short.. whatevers. Dwarfs, I assume?"

No one answered him. Instead Thorin raised his Orcrist to point it toward that man.

"Who are you?" he asked demanding.

"That is certainly not your business," the man answered squinting. "But what is your business is that you are walking on a land that belongs to someone else. You have no right to be here."

"Since when?"

"Since the Lord of this world came back to control everything. Take their weapons away!"

The company of dwarfs resisted and fought back but with the preponderance it was very easy for the men to do what they had told to. For Bilbo's luck they hadn't search anything else, the ring in his pocket felt like it was burning.

"Now it's better," the leader of the men said smiling. "And we are ready to go."

"Where?" Thorin asked glaring the human.

"To our Lord, of course. He would be very pleased to meet you."

Thorin exchanged a devilish glance with the leader of the opponent. This wasn't going to end well.

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**If you have any ideas or wishes for this story, let me hear them. I will consider using them if they fit any of the ideas I already have in mind :)  
**

**I actually had to change some little parts of the story because it seemed like Thorin was having some PMS :') I really hope it didn't look like that!**


	7. Chapter 7: Itsy Bitsy Spiders

**New chapter is up!**

**I know, it's been a long time. The other me didn't want to volunteer in this writing process so I just had to use a whip on her :) Then the muse in her head didn't want to shut up at all so this chapter actually became near 5000 words (it's not finished yet) and the story had to be cut into two parts. **

**In this chapter there will be danger and.. much more! Will there be survivors? ;) **

**The next chapter will be ready in just few days (I hope so). All the checking just takes some time, even with the help of sodapoppana. So be patient! **

**Enjoy!**

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The group of human archers and unarmed dwarfs (including one scared hobbit) walked in the forest with no certain road. There were no sounds around them, no birds or wind in the trees, only the crunching and breaking when they stepped on the dry branches.

"Move faster!" the leader of the archers shouted. "I don't want to spend the rest of my life in this cursed place."

"Then you have chosen the wrong area to patrol," Thorin commented.

The human turned to face the head dwarf and the whole group stopped.

"Did I ask you anything? You should worry about more of your situation right now than to interfere with my issues."

"You have already interfered us in your _issues_ so as long as you don't give me answers I will continue this," Thorin had his stern look in his eyes.

"Very well," the archer said and stepped closer. "If you want to do this in the hard way. Tell me, why wouldn't I just kill you right here, right now?"

"Because you would be dead yourself before you'd be finished with that," Dwalin answered the question before Thorin.

"I see," the human smiled.

"Hallas!" someone yelled and the human turned to see what was going on. "Astar is coming back!"

Hallas furrowed and saw how one of his men came running from the south. He walked toward this man and they discussed something in a distance. Astar spoke with the leader, not raising his voice so no one else could hear them.

Hallas nodded and sent the man back. Then he walked back to the group.

"It seems that someone wants you to be alive," the leader said tilting his head. "So be it. But this journey is going too slow. Ostoher, come here!"

One of his men came by Hallas' side, not looking afraid at all. "Ostoher, I believe I can trust you. We will separate them and you will lead the other group to our destination."  
"Yes, Hallas," Ostoher nodded with pride.

"Divide them into two!" Hallas ordered and the men acted quickly.

Fili and Kili felt the familiar feeling of separation as they were randomly put into different groups. Kili tried to sprint back to his brother but one of the men noticed his actions and pushed him back (not actually knowing the true meaning of the young dwarf's rushing). Thorin put his hand to Kili's shoulder as a sign not to do anything stupid. Fili could only give a sad look to his brother.

"Hallas!" someone called out again and everyone turned to see the man. Next to him stood Bilbo. Hallas watched the hobbit curiously. "Well, you are definitely not a dwarf. What are you?"

"I am a hobbit. From Shire," Bilbo answered little nervous.

"A halfling?" the leader furrowed. "That's interesting. Why are you with these dwarfs? I believe it is highly rare."

"And I believe I don't have to answer that question," Bilbo tried to be polite and strict at the same time.

"Is that so?" Hallas gave him a smile. "Unfortunately my messenger didn't mention anything about keeping hobbits alive."

The halfling's eyes widened and he swallowed, the dwarfs froze and exchanged glances.

"He's with us!" Thorin said out loud, trying to cover his comrade's back and Bilbo felt a bit relieved.

"But I don't have any use for him," Hallas said not looking away from the hobbit. Kili turned to his uncle, expressing an unsaid thought of Thorin to do something.

"He is with us," Thorin repeated. Hallas finally turned to face him.

"It doesn't mean anything to me if he's with you. It only means that I don't need him."

Bilbo was now afraid of the worst.

"Give me the rope!" Hallas commanded. He grabbed the halfling's arm and dragged him to the nearest tree. The rope was soon there and Hallas began to tie it around Bilbo.

"W-what are you doing?" the hobbit stuttered.

"I have no intentions to take you with me and it would be waste to just leave your lifeless body here to lay on the ground. I think there will be lots of animals that would be delighted to see you."

The rope was around Bilbo's middle body, binding his arms against his sides. Hallas threw the other side of the rope over a branch that was strong and high enough to support the weight of the hobbit. Then he pulled the rope and Bilbo was lifted in the air.

"W-wait, wait!" the hobbit winced as he swayed around.

"I don't have time to wait," Hallas said and pulled the last time, leashing the rope to one of the tree's roots. Bilbo was hanging in the air, ten feet from the ground.

"Let me down!"

"I think we are ready to leave now," Hallas said smiling at the grumpy dwarfs. "Shall we go?"

He led the dwarfs and men into the forest leaving Bilbo fidgeting in the air.

/ / / /

They left separate ways little after the hobbit had been left hung on a tree. Ostoher led his group forward with the leader's pride; his head held high and mind focused on the task that was given to him. But because he didn't look down, the sound of splash came very sudden and very unexpectedly to him.

Ostoher stopped and looked down, murmuring some bad words; they had come to a swamp.

"I don't remember this been here before," he said and turned to face his men, demanding an answer, but everyone just shrugged.

"Detour then."

The leader of the group moved forward slowly, checking the ground with every step. He was taking his men little bit back to the west, to the middle of the forest where they had come from. Ostoher wasn't sure if it was safe again to walk straight so he ordered one of his men to do the checking. The chosen man swallowed and frightened walked to the showed direction.

The dwarfs followed the man with their gazes, so did everyone else. It seemed to be solid ground and the man stopped after a while. He turned to look back.

"It's not a swamp anymore!" he called out and Ostoher nodded. At that very moment after the words were said the ground under the unnamed man gave in and he sank.

"And that's what happens when you don't pay attention to your environment. And when you get too close to the edge of the swamp," Ostoher shook his head. "More to the west!"

"Wait!" Fili shouted in disbelief. "Aren't you gonna help him up?"

Ostoher gave him a stern look. "Do you see him there anymore?"

And Fili didn't. The man never came back to the surface.

"Exactly. I'm not gonna risk my men and myself just to help some dummy who doesn't know the best of himself. And I suggest you would do the same."

He studied the expression of the blond dwarf and glanced at the forest.

"This is Mirkwood, a cursed forest. It's always changing and not to the better way. Apparently those swamps will just pop up somewhere, not giving any warnings of its coming. It seems to be alive, moving wherever it wants. Let's get going now!"

They managed to find a safe path and they moved quite quickly forward. Fili felt some shivers on his spine.

"I'm having a bad feeling," he whispered to Balin, who walked right next to him.

"Me too laddie, me too," the old one answered. "This is not going to end well."

"It's not just that, it's.. something different, like.. like..."

"Like back there when you said we should have taken the other road?"

"Yeah," Fili said and grimaced.

"Uuugh, aaarh!" one of the men yelled suddenly. Ostoher stopped on his tracks and turned to see what the matter was this time.

"Spider web," the man mumbled little ashamed of his reaction. Ostoher rolled his eyes and continued walking. Fili and Balin exchanged glances.

"What the – " the leader said out loud and came to a sudden halt. In front of him was the largest spider web any of them had ever seen. He examined it carefully.

"I think it's time to take upon arms, my men," Ostoher announced and every one of them were now alarmed, watching their surroundings with sword or bow in their hands. What they didn't know was that the threat they were about to face didn't come from the sides but from above.

When the first white lump hit one of the archers it was already too late.

"It's above us!" Ostoher shouted as a warning. "Cover yourselves!" And the panic was on. The next spitted web glued another man to a tree; the man started to wriggle and scream but it was in vain.

"Run!" Fili yelled to his fellows and the dwarfs tried to disperse and escape from the attack.

But there were more than just one giant spider waiting for a lunch; one of them landed right in front of Ori, Bofur and Bombur, who just stared at the spider in a shock for a second. Even that second was too long time to wait. Before they had time to move even an inch they were covered with the web. The air was full not only with the screaming of the archers but also with the spiders' shrieks.

Fili saw the fate of the three dwarfs from the corner of his eyes.

"No!" he shouted and was already turning back to help them but Balin stopped him.

"We can't go back! We need to get out of here!"

Oin, who was just 5 feet away from Fili and Balin, fell to the ground covered with the sticky, white web. And Gloin followed soon after that. The two remaining dwarfs looked up only to see one spider coming after them.

"Run, Fili, for the sake of Durin!" Balin said and Fili sprinted away as the older dwarf became the next victim.

Fili didn't manage to take too many running steps before he felt the sticky lump around him. He stumbled but quickly got up to continue his escape, even though it was useless. The next lump was shot to his legs and he fell hard on the half rotten moss.

The spider was soon on top of him, taking him to its long legs and starting to roll him around, adding that disgusting web. In the last seconds Fili could see that there was no one left anymore, everyone was down and the spiders were dealing with their lunch the same way he was dealt with right now.

And just before the web covered his face he realised that there were no shouting anymore.

/ / / /

"No! Wait!" Bilbo yelled to the backs of the archers and dwarfs that were quite far away now. He tugged and pulled as hard as he could but nothing worked; the rope was really hurting now, it was very unpleasant to hang there like that. Somewhere in a distance came some sort of a sound.

"What was that?" Bilbo whispered to himself and stopped moving. Frightened he glanced around, not seeing anything specific approaching him, to his luck.

"Breathe.. breathe.. you are a hobbit. And hobbits will always find a way to solve things out."

He started to speak to himself just for a comfort and keeping his thoughts away from the animals that might find and eat him just like that.

"You are partly a Took, remember that," the halfling reasoned. "Yes, yes. But you are mostly a Baggins. Oooooh, this is waste of time, your twaddle is not going to help you!"

As he stopped the monologue he spaced for a second or two and then burst out laughing.

"Great thing Bilbo Baggins, you are just about to turn into another Gollum!" And then he sighed.

"I need to figure out something. Think, think!"

Bilbo tried everything; he swayed, wriggled, spun... nothing happened, he only managed to get dizzy and little sick. He made a sound of frustration.

"I wish I had a knife. I wish I was Fili, he always has a – " the halfling paused his thoughts for a realisation. "I do have a knife, indeed!"

The hobbit remembered the day he was hunting the rabbit with the brothers. Fili had given one of his knives to Bilbo, just in case he would need it someday. And that day had come now.

"Where did I put it?" he mumbled but felt soon the pressure on his lower back. "Ah, of course!"

He now tried to get his hand at the back side but the rope was really tight around him.

"C'mon! What bad have I ever done to you?" Bilbo bended his hand, his fingers were just few inches away from the knife. He gave a quick pull and his arm slid further back along the rope.

Bilbo got enthusiastic and succeeded to take a grip of the knife.

"Okay, and now.. do not drop it." He took a deep sigh and started to cut the rope from the place he just could reach. At first it seemed that nothing happened; only Bilbo's wrist hurt so much that he had to pause once in a while. But then he could feel part of the rope snap and he smiled.

Until the moment he realised what was waiting for him: the fall.

"Uh-oh," Bilbo said and the rope gave in. He fell the ten feet fast, hitting the ground with his left side. The halfling felt sharp pain in his wrist as it bent under his body. He grimaced in pain and rolled onto his back.

"Ouch," he whispered, took some deep breaths and stood up. "Okay then, let's save the day." Bilbo followed the path that the big group of archers and dwarfs had left behind. It wasn't hard at all and he could even run following the tracks. But then it changed after a while, Bilbo had to stop.

"They were divided into two," he mumbled examining the area. He saw one path continuing straight from the place he was standing now and another one going more to the left.

"Too many dwarfs to handle at once," Bilbo thought out loud. "I don't blame that. So.. I assume the bad man took the most threat, which means at least Thorin. I wouldn't have risked that much.."

He tapped his lips with a thoughtful glare.

"They probably have the weapons too. The other group.. no big deal with them. The first ones might have gone straight because," Bilbo said reasoning to himself, "that man would certainly not take any other route than the one that was already in his mind. So, the question is which one should I follow?"

It was a hard decision. The second group might be easier to help but they didn't have a chance against the armed men, no way. And the others.. well, it would be much harder with that leader man being fixated on the task, his eyes as sharp as an eagle would have.

"Definitely Thorin's group," Bilbo decided and nodded to no one. "If I don't get them free first he would be very mad at me. I don't want to experience that evil glare." And with that he ran off to make the day. The hobbit didn't have any plans how he was going to get everyone free. But that didn't mean he wouldn't try; he actually had that one little special thing still in his pocket and he believed it was the answer.

Soon he could hear talking ahead of him and he slowed down a little bit so that no one would notice him. Finally he saw the group and he cheered mentally when he saw he had been right; Thorin was in that group, so did the weapons. Now Bilbo just had to figure out what to do. He decided it was time to play hide and seek so he took the ring from his pocket and put it onto his finger.

Thorin and Hallas were getting on each other's nerves. Their arguments resounded in the dark forest, giving Bilbo the advance to approach them silently enough. The halfling walked to two men that were carrying the dwarfs' weapons. He picked up some rock and threw it to the distance. Everyone stopped.

"What was that?" Hallas asked from the 20 feet distance glancing around. Bilbo used his chance and kicked the man in front of him to his hollow of the knee. When the man dropped down on all fours the hobbit gave a good hit to the back of his head. The other man right beside Bilbo stared in horror when his comrade fell down with no reason.

Bilbo made another distraction and did the same thing to the other man. The swords and axes clanged and clattered together which of course alarmed the others.

"What is happening back there?" Hallas demanded from the front.

"They.. uhmm, they are down," one archer said confused.

"Excuse me?" the leader said and walked closer.

Bilbo had managed to get three weapons, though he didn't know which dwarfs they belonged to. One of them he did recognize, it was Orcrist, so one owner was known. He moved quickly next to the dwarfs, first to Thorin. He took a good grip from the dwarf king's wrist, making sure he wouldn't back off.

Thorin turned his gaze to his side but couldn't see anyone; the touch still remained and he furrowed. Bilbo put the Orcrist on Thorin's open palm and pressed the king's fingers around the hilt. The dwarf recognized the sword's shape immediately even though he didn't see it. Instantly when Bilbo let go of the weapon Thorin could see it. Bilbo moved to the next two dwarfs, giving them the two weapons he had while the archers were looking at the fallen men.

Bilbo then threw some bigger stones to the other way.

"Someone go and see what it is! I wanna know what's going on!" Hallas shouted angrily. The halfling took the next weapons nearby and gave them to the dwarfs who looked exactly as confused as Thorin had; none of the archer men noticed the weapons disappearing. The dwarfs glanced at each other and with Thorin's sign they attacked.

Six dwarfs rushed toward the humans who were nearly half taller than them. The first ones were taken by the surprise, Thorin and Dwalin hit their weapons to the frontline and the others ran past them. Kili found his bow and quiver, and prepared them quickly to shoot the men that had went to search for the source of the noise.

"Don't you dare to move," Thorin threatened Hallas with the Orcrist on the man's neck. "Or I cut your throat right now."

"Well do that, little man," Hallas smiled and dropped his own sword. Thorin didn't say anything to that.

What the dwarf didn't see was that Hallas was reaching for the second weapon, hidden in the backside of him. Thorin didn't know what was waiting for him but before the human could make his move something hit to the man's head and he fell on the ground. Thorin glanced at his surroundings but there was no one near enough. He did think Kili though, because the young dwarf could shoot the target within quite a long distance, but his nephew was looking in another direction at the time.

They had won. All the men were laying on the ground, either unconscious or groaning silently. Thorin watched his fellows who had the same expression than himself.

"Does anyone have an explanation?" he asked half confused. Everyone just shrugged.

"I do," Bilbo said aloud and Thorin saw him for the first time after they had been separated from each other. He was standing 5 feet away from the king.

"Bilbo!" Kili called out and smiled widely.

"Master hobbit, we should have known," Dori shook his head also smiling. Thorin was speechless.

The dwarfs gathered curiously around the hobbit.

"What?" Bilbo asked feeling slightly awkward in that situation.

"How did you do that?" Kili asked enthusiastically. "Are you a wizard or something?"

"Oh, no no no, just.." the halfling tried to think quickly. "We, hobbits, can be sometimes very invisible."

"Indeed," Thorin finally said something. "It was you who put the sword on my hand, weren't you?"

"And the other weapons on ours," Nori added exchanging glances with the other dwarfs.

"Yes, it was me," Bilbo avoided their eyes. "I really didn't have any plans what to do so I just had to improvise. And I realised I have no idea which sword or axe belonged to which one of you."

"Oh, it was a good guess," Kili agreed but Bilbo could see them switching the weapons. "We are just glad you are ok!"

Kili walked to Bilbo's and hugged him tightly, to the halfling's surprise, and the smaller one yelped as the wrist got caught in the middle of them.

"I would say not that ok," Bilbo grimaced and held his hand. "But I will live. The fall wasn't just as succeeded as I thought it would be."

"How did you get down from that tree?" Thorin asked.

"Well," Bilbo said, "let's say I need to thank Fili for that. He had lent me one of his hunting knives and the humans hadn't noticed it."

"Right, Fili.." Kili mumbled remembering suddenly that his brother wasn't there. "We need to go search for the rest!"

"What about those?" Dwalin pointed at the men. "We can't just leave them lying here."

"We have to, " Thorin said and put his sword where it belonged: first in the holster and then to his back. The others followed his example, and they also took the missing group's weapons.

As they were ready to leave they heard high-pitched shrieking from a distance.

"What was that?" Dwalin asked alarmed.

"Didn't sound good," Thorin admitted. "And it came from where we are about to go. Let's move!"

The dwarfs and the hobbit started to run toward east with no clue what was waiting for them.

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**Pssst... I like reviews and comments ;) **

**And if you have any wishes to see more of some certain characters or events, let me know. I don't promise anything but I will consider it. **


	8. Chapter 8: To The Rescue

**New chapter up as soon as promised! **

**Nori was asked for and Nori you will get. Remember, if you wish you may get. **

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The sound of high-pitched shriek had stopped long ago and the dwarfs didn't know if they were going to the right direction. The hesitation showed in Thorin's face when he came to a halt to examine the surroundings.

"Maybe we should go back to the beginning," Bilbo suggested. "There were traces about – "

"There is no need to," Dwalin abrupted and took some white web from the nearest branch. "I think we may have a bigger problem." He showed the foundings.

They all turned to look at the trees that were nearly fully covered with the spiderweb.

"Dear Mahal," Thorin breathed. "How big they are? The spiders or whatever have made these things?"

"I would say bigger than we are used to see," Dwalin answered. "A lot bigger."

"Which means they.. the others.." Dori began to say but couldn't end his sentence.

"No!" Kili protested and everyone startled. "We have to believe they are still alive! They have to be.."

Thorin put a hand on his nephew's shoulder.

"Don't worry Kili, they will be. They wouldn't dare to leave us now."

"If we have to fight with some giant bugs," Dwalin commented. "We need a plan. And a good one too."

"I – I think I can help with that," Bilbo offered little unsure. The dwarfs turned their gazes to the hobbit.

"The same way you did earlier?" Thorin asked with sterness in his voice.

"Yeah, well.. I think so, yes," Bilbo answered shrugging. "Even though I.. I really don't know what is out there."

"You handled very well the situation back there," Dori smiled. "Why would this be a problem?"

"Because," Thorin interrupted, "the hobbit has never faced anything like this."

No one said anything. Bilbo coughed.

"Yes, you are right Thorin," the halfling said feeling awkward. "But it doesn't mean I wouldn't try."

"That's real talking," Kili smiled but under his uncle's look he shut his mouth.

"If they see us first we are absolutely doomed in that second," Bilbo reasoned. "So if I can kill them first.."

"What if you can't?" Thorin asked.

"Well.. at least I have tried."

"What do we do then?" Dori wanted to know and Kili nodded.

"We will wait at the scene." It was the only answer Thorin gave.

"And if things go wrong I really hope you have a backup plan," Bilbo mumbled worried. He couldn't believe what he had just suggested; his own mother would turn in her grave for that sort of dumbness. But it was too late to back off now.

"Okay, let's get going then," Bilbo sighed. Thorin gave him the last quick look before they continued. What the leader didn't reveal from his thoughts was the fact that he was actually worried about the hobbit's safety in this task. The little one didn't have the experience in anything this journey required from him. And everything they had to face could cost a life.

They moved slowlier than before because they didn't know how far the threat would be and if they now ran straight to it, it would be their end. The only sign of going to right direction was the increased amount of webs around them. Even the smallest ones were quite strong and didn't break so easily. Soon they saw the first glimpses of the danger that was now 100 yards away and they hid behind the trees.

"It is huuuuuge," Kili said with disbelief showing on his face.

"What is it doing?" Dori asked trying to see better.

"I would rather ask what are _they_ doing," Thorin said and shook his head.

There were more than one giant spider in the sight; the first two were on the ground and one was up in a tree making a web at short distance from the other two.

"For Mahal's sake, they are preparing their dinner!" Dwalin commented. They could discern the long white things the spiders were spinning around with their front legs. And the white things could be identified as bodies.

Bilbo swallowed; he could feel his heart pounding so hard he was afraid it would jump right out of its place.

"Are you okay?" Thorin asked him.

"Yes, yes, I'm okay," Bilbo lied still watching the arachnids.

"Come here," Thorin beckoned and stepped further away from the others.

Bilbo didn't know what to expect but he gathered his courage and followed the leader.

"Bilbo," Thorin began. "I know this is very dangerous thing to do."

"I know that too," the hobbit said.

Thorin put his both hands on Bilbo's shoulders and stared him straight into his eyes.

"I haven't been the kindest dwarf to you but I want you to know that I really don't want to lose our burglar," Thorin muttered with a serious tone.

Bilbo was speechless. Thorin had never acted like he cared what was happening to the hobbit and now he admitted that he was worried about him.

"Oh, okay," Bilbo uttered. "I – eh, I try my best not to.. be lost."

Thorin gave him a tiny small. "We have your back, mister Baggins."

The halfling nodded. "I'm ready."

They went back to the others.

"There is only three of them," Dwalin reported. "It won't be a problem."

"I hope not," Thorin said and glanced at the spiders. "It's time. Mister Baggins?"

"Yes, I'm already going," the hobbit said. "I need every one of you to close your eyes."

"Excuse me what?" Dori asked furrowing.

"Just for a second," Bilbo offended. "I don't want the secret to be revealed." Dori rolled his eyes and all the six dwarfs closed their eyes.

Dori only counted to two and when he opened his eyes the burglar had disappeared. The others did the same and they tried to search for their missing comrade.

"There!" Kili whispered and pointed to a place where the moss got stepped on and bushes were moving without a wind.

"How is he doing that?" Dwalin wanted to know.

"I think it's better we don't know," Thorin answered the question.

Bilbo tried to breathe very quietly, he didn't want to alarm the spiders right away. He squeezed his sword to feel at least a little bit more protected. He glimpsed at the dwarfs he had left behind; he really wanted to be somewhere else at the moment.

There was only 15 feet between the halfling and one of the spiders on the ground. Bilbo passed few wrapped bodies on his way, he hoped that whoever they were would still be alive. No one had told him if the spiders were filled with venom, had lethal teeth or anything like that or if they were just like normal spiders, just bigger.

The hobbit was about to get ready for the attack when the spider nearby turned to face him. Bilbo froze in place, afraid to do anything. The spider seemed to sniff the air and search for something it didn't see. And at that moment Bilbo cursed himself for being so stupid not to realise that even though he was invisible it didn't mean he couldn't been noticed through any other senses. It was the moment he had waited for; if he wished to do anything by the surprise he had to act now, before it was too late.

Bilbo raised his sword and sprinted toward the giant animal, striking the weapon to its stomach area. The spider shrieked in agony and Bilbo made his second hit, this time toward the throat. Thorin and others had moved closer while the hobbit had distracted the spiders and they were on an attack distance. Without any hesitation the six dwarfs rushed to the two spiders at the same time Bilbo got thrown aside by the giant arachnid.

They knew they were disadvantaged but they had no other choice, they just had to try. The dwarfs divided into two groups and targeted the spiders with their swords and bow. Bilbo had got hit by the spider's leg when it defended itself from the unseen threat. He bumped into a tree and straight to a small web lump that was hanging from a branch above. He only got stuck by his hand and he started to yank it free.

The dwarfs were in trouble; the spiders were too strong, big and quick for them to handle. Bilbo felt the urge to go and help them so he gathered his strength and broke loose from the web. He was ready to take action when he realised something had changed; he wasn't feeling the same anymore, things looked different.

Kili stumbled on the ground while the others continued their shouting and fighting.

"Bilbo?" he asked when he noticed the hobbit standing at the short distance. The halfling didn't realise right away that the words were directed to him.

"You – you can see me?" Bilbo asked back confused.

"Eeeeh yes..?" Kili stared at him.

Bilbo glanced at his hand and to his horror the ring had vanished.  
"Oh no," he mumbled and turned to see the web lump. There, in the middle of it, glimmered the golden magic ring.

"Bilbo, watch out!" Kili yelled as something dropped down right behind the hobbit. Bilbo could feel a slight breeze on his neck.

"Oh dear," he said and ducked down just in time.

They had totally forgotten the third spider that was preparing a dinner up on the huge web. Apparently it wanted to let everyone know that it still existed. And that it was ready to fight. Kili was pulled back to the other fight and so Bilbo was alone to face the danger.

The halfling managed to get further from the giant but the animal was ruthless, it didn't leave him be. Bilbo tried to avoid the straight contact with it by moving behind trees, without success. The sword in his hand had hard times defending the owner from the spider's hits. From the corner of his eyes Bilbo could see that one spider was already down, defeated, and the dwarfs were now fully attacking the other. He just hoped someone would help him too.

Bilbo and his enemy were moving slow now, like just waiting for the other to make the move. The hobbit held his sword on his face's level, looking determined but still backing away. His slow-speed escape came to an end when he felt sticky substance on his back and he couldn't move further. Bilbo swallowed when he realised that he was trapped; he had backed off straight to the huge web and he swore he could see the spider smile for a victory.

"You don't want to eat me, you really don't," he tried to reason with the beast. "I t-taste very very bad, I wouldn't risk it." He attempted to get free but instead got caught worse; his both hands were now also stuck on the web.

The spider came closer, inch by inch, and moved its two feet long sting toward the doomed hobbit.

"Didn't your.. mother.. teach you not to point sharp things at anyone?" Bilbo stuttered terrified. The spider shrieked and Bilbo closed his eyes. He waited for a pain that didn't come after all. In lieu of been slaughtered by an ugly bug he heard sounds of a fighting right in front of him. Still afraid Bilbo opened his eyes.

It was Thorin who was trying to protect Bilbo from a certain death. The leader was soon accompanied first by Dwalin and then the rest of the dwarfs. It didn't take long for them to kill the beast with preponderance.

"You should be more aware of your surroundings," Thorin said to Bilbo out of breath. "There won't always be someone to save your life."  
"I – I know," Bilbo said hugely relieved. "Thank you."

"It was in return for the cliff incident. Let's free our comrades!" Thorin left immediately to search for the missing dwarfs with others.

"H – hey! Can you.. somebody.. little help, please?" Bilbo called out with fading voice but everyone was keen on searching the right size of bodies from the ground. He tried to yank his arms free, then the legs, but nothing worked; the web was plainly too sticky, it needed to be cut. Bilbo did have a sword and a knife but he was kind of unable to use either of them at the moment.

"Don't move, you will get more tangled to it," Nori said suddenly beside Bilbo and took his knife, starting to cut the web.

"Oh thank goodness," Bilbo sighed. "I thought – "

"That nobody would take you down from there?"

"I have to admit that, yes."

"Why would you think that?" Nori wanted to know as one string snapped.

"Well..." Bilbo shrugged, "you know, I'm not the favourite one in this group."

"But you are part of it, don't forget that," Nori said and gave the hobbit a knowing glance.

The dwarfs were rushing around, setting their friends free one by one. Dori was hugging his little brother, Ori, who was totally terrified and shaking in slight shock. Bifur managed to find Bombur (which wasn't actually hard at all, comparing the sizes) and with the help of Ori and the orange bearded dwarf they could recognize Bofur also.

Some mistakes they did, but they just left the men lay on the ground despite their protests. Dwalin and Kili were helping Oin and Gloin while Thorin found his old fellow, Balin. The king cut off the spiderweb around him and gave a relieved smile.

"Good to see you," Thorin said giving a hand.

"You too, laddie, you too," Balin answered and was pulled up. "You have no idea how hard it was to breathe inside that thing."

"I can imagine," Thorin agreed and observed the dwarfs that were up. "Where... is Fili?"

"I don't know, I told him to run," Balin said worried and looked around. "He was still up when they got me."

"Fili!" Thorin called out, which of course got Kili's attention.

"What's the matter?" the younger nephew asked.

"Fili is missing. Can you see him anywhere?"

"... No.."

"Cut every capsule open, now!"

And so they did; they made holeson the face parts but none of the bodies were Fili's.

"Where can he be?" Thorin wondered spinning around, searching any sign of his nephew. "Look for further areas!" They all went different directions, except Nori and Bilbo who were still struggling with the giant web.

"I don't understand," Thorin said out loud while walking away. "We killed all the three spiders, Fili should be here."

"Three?" Balin asked and stopped on his tracks. "I hate to tell you this laddie, but there were more than just three spiders."

Thorin stared at his fellow for couple of seconds and turned to look back where he had come from. Just in time to see what they had missed.

Bilbo watched as the dwarfs started searching for the missing one.

"That is such a bad luck we are having," he commented as Nori cut another string.

"And we still have a long way to go," the dwarf stated.

"Poor Fili," Bilbo shook his head and felt one string snap. "How much left?"

"Just a few more and you are free, mister Baggins," Nori answered concentrated.

"NORI! BILBO! WATCH OUT!" they heard Thorin shout from the distant.

They both glimpsed to the leader then to each other and finally up. Immediately Nori got a web lump to his face and he stumbled backwards by the force, crashing to the ground. Bilbo felt the sudden panic rise in him and he tried to pull his hand free. The spider had different things in mind; it spitted a lump around Bilbo and started to drag its victim on the tree.

The dwarfs ran back as fast as they could, already taking up their weapons.

"Kili, shoot it!" Thorin shouted. The young dwarf slowed down preparing his bow. He was aiming the spider to its head but the creature was on the move so the arrow flew past by an inch.  
"Kili!" The second arrow didn't even get the chance to get shot because the dwarf hesitated.

"I can't," Kili said lowering his bow just a little bit. "Bilbo is too close."

All the 12 dwarfs were now staring at the scene with worry and fear for their little burglar. Bilbo struggled as much as he could but being binded with a sticky web he didn't stand a chance. The spider was trying to pinch its becoming dinner with the sting in its rear. Also the teeth were busy clanging together for the hunger.

"No no no no!" Bilbo shouted as he kicked the spider's legs and flailed with his sword. The giant got angry and striked the metal away. Ori had to jump away when the sword fell to his feet.

Kili ran to the tree, intending to climb up and shoot from there but Thorin disagreed with him.

"It's too dangerous," the king said looking up.

"But – "

"No."

"Thorin, we may have another problem," Dwalin interrupted their quarrel pointing his finger to other way.

A huge roar echoed in the forest as a black bear ran closer to them.

"Get ready!" Thorin commanded lifting his own Orcrist higher. But the bear didn't target them, it ran straight toward one of the trees the spider had made its web on and collided with it. The tree shook from the strike but the bear didn't stop.

"What is it doing?" Bofur asked holding his weapon in front of him. No one answered because they were so keen on watching the animal doing its destruction to the tree; even Nori was forgotten. The spider felt the tremor and dropped Bilbo. But because the hobbit was binded with the web he just remained hanging in the air.

"Not again," Bilbo said as he hung from his shoulders and arms.

As the black bear hit the tree once again the spider lost its foothold and started to fall. It tried to get a grip of anything but it was too big for the tree. On the way down it hit Bilbo who started to spin around from the force. The dwarfs shouted their battle-cry and ran toward the spider. The arachnid had still some survival instinct left and it sprinted quickly away. Thorin stopped and so did the others; the spider was just too fast to follow.

"Are you okay, laddie?" Balin called out to Bilbo.

"Yep, no problem," he answered from above. "Couldn't be better." Some of the dwarfs laughed shortly, even Thorin gave him a smile.

"And you know what?" Bilbo asked, "I think I found Fili." Just few feet from the hobbit there was a big capsule on the web and it looked like a dwarf.

Dwalin, Kili, Bofur and Bifur climbed up to help Bilbo down and free the young dwarf from his prison. Ori had remained on the ground and was now helping Nori to get the web away from his face. Kili was so relieved seeing his brother alive that he didn't want to let go after giving a good hug, Bilbo instead felt little shaky when he felt the ground again. The bear had vanished as quick as it had come and no one knew why it attacked the spider and not the dwarfs.

"We should get going before it comes back," Thorin said putting his sword to the holster. He though watched after his nephews; the thought of losing either of them distressed him very much and the fact that it had almost happened... well, he wasn't happy.

"Bilbo?" Nori asked watching the pale hobbit. "Are you alright?"

"I.. uhmm.." the halfling mumbled not able to focus his eyes on the dwarf in front of him. The others turned to look too.

"I think.. I'm.. feeling little.. dizzy," Bilbo said and he began to drop down. Nori had the quick reflexes and grabbed the hobbit before hitting the ground.

"What is wrong?" Thorin asked coming closer.

"I don't know," Nori said holding the halfling. Bofur kneeled down and moved a little bit of Bilbo's clothing from the shoulder.

"Oh dear," Bofur commented and showed what he had found.

There was a deep cut in Bilbo's shoulder that was now bleeding.

"I think the spider got what it wanted," Bofur said sadly.

"No," Thorin breathed and kneeled also down to see the wound better. "No. It can't.. Oin! You have a medical knowledge."

The old dwarf stepped forward, still little exhausted from the incident he had experienced.

"I don't think I can do any good here," he stated, "but maybe in the lake-town, Esgaroth, if we can get there maybe I have a chance."

Thorin was facing a hard decision, either to continue with the possibility to lose one of his own or to stay in the danger area and try to heal the one who was important part of the journey.

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**Pssst.. I don't have any ideas or plans for the next chapter, yet! So don't wait chapter 9 to come out so soon :)**


	9. Chapter 9: Athelas

**A/N: Wohoo, I made it! Okay yes, I know, it took way too much time to get this chapter here. But my motivation hasn't been home for a while. I has actually went along with the Ghost Adventures :D **

**Thank God I had already written part of this story at some point so I hadn't much work to do anymore. I was actually planning to write more on this chapter but I got lazy ;D But I think it's good enough like this; no action in this chapter (unless you want to see it in another way).**

** I have to admit that my plans for this story.. there aren't many chapters coming, maybe two or three, possibly four (depending on how creative I will get!) But let's just enjoy this moment in progress, yay! **

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Thorin was thinking in fast speed as he watched the hobbit lying on the ground. The wound on Bilbo's shoulder was looking quite hurtful and bad, and by time it got worse.

"What's the decision?" Oin asked calmly, waiting an order from the king, as did the others.

Thorin breathed deep and bit his teeth together for a while. He really wanted to have a simple and working plan but he didn't; he couldn't figure out anything that could save the life of the halfling. But the decision had to be made.

"Get some thick branches, we need to make a stretcher," Thorin finally said out loud. "We will get away from here as far as possible, then we can think what to do with.. the burglar." Few dwarves rushed different directions as a search for the needed requisites, some others tried to make the fabric part.

It was done sooner than Thorin had thought; they could move Bilbo in few minutes to the carriable bed.

"We will take turns," the dwarf king said, "Fili, Kili, you are the first two. Let's move!" Hurrying the brothers lifted the stretcher and the company started walking.

"Ori, you will make sure we will be on right tracks," Thorin said to the young dwarf. He knew Ori had a knowledge of those things and while he himself examined the surroundings for the possible threats, someone had to make sure they were going to the right direction.

Ori was looking at the position of the sun and made his assumptions based on that fact. Couple times he had to correct their moving, they tend to go way much toward the north. The dwarves took turns in carrying the unconscious hobbit who didn't make any signs of awaking. Soon the end of the forest came to everyone's sight and Thorin raised his hand as a sign for a stop.

"Fili, Kili, you two go and see how far the Esgaroth is. Oin, now is your time to do your medical things," Thorin commanded. The brothers ran further and the two dwarves carrying Bilbo put the stretcher down.

"I don't know if there is anything I can use as working herbs," Oin stated apologetically. "This area is very unfamiliar to me."

"There has to be something!" Thorin raised his voice for the frushtration. "Anything that slows down the sickness just for a little bitso that we can reach the city and get help."

Fili and Kili came back.

"It's still far away. With this speed we will be at the gates by the dark," Fili shook his head. Thorin looked up, the sky had already a hint of yellow and orange in its colour but he knew it would take time to be completely dark.

"Oin," Thorin turned to the old dwarf who seemed to be thinking a solution. "We don't have choice. If we don't do anything it is very possible that we will lost our burglar."

"What if," Ori said suddenly, "we use Athelas?"

They all turned to look at the dwarf.

"Athelas?" Thorin asked.

"In common language it's known as Kingsfoil," Ori explained. "It is said to ease the pain, heal wounds and vanish the darkness."

Thorin gave a questioning look to Oin who was nodding.

"It might work, indeed. But it's hard to find and I don't know if it grows anywhere here."

"What does it look like?" Dori asked.

"It's.. uhmmm..." Oin had to think a little bit.

"Small white flowers," Ori helped him out. "It grows in small clusters."

"Okay, everybody search for the plant!" Thorin said. "But don't go too far. And if you find it make sure everyone knows not to continue the search." The tiredness was shown in everybody's face but they had to push it away for the sake of the dying hobbit. Thorin and Balin stayed where they were, to guard the one who was down.

"Don't worry, he will be alright," Balin tried to comfort the worried king beside him.

"This time I'm not sure of it," Thorin admitted as he kneeled down to examine the wound. "We are running out of time."

"But we still have some left. Don't lose the hope yet."

"I won't, I promise. But.." Thorin couldn't find the words.

"I know."

They were silent for a while. Thorin noticed that the skin around Bilbo's wound was turning bluish and it worried him more. The breathing was very shallow and the halfling's skin in general was covered with little amount of cold sweat. Definitely not a good sign. After couple of minutes they could hear some shouting in a distance and Thorin's head snapped to the direction.

"They found it," Balin said smiling and Thorin stood up. "I think they found it!"

"I really hope so," the king murmured. It didn't take long for the dwarves to get running back. It appered to be Bombur who had found the Kingsfoil. It was only a small cluster in Thorin's hand but he hoped it was enough.

"What now?" Thorin asked looking at Ori and Oin. "Do I just put it to the wound or what?"

The two dwarves exchanged glances.

"What?"

Ori hesitated. "Well, I have heard that some have cooked it to get the infusion from it."

"To cook?" Thorin gave him a stern look. "We do not have time for a tea now. Figure out something else."

The young dwarf was looking troubled and nearly panicking under the strern glance of leader.

"Maybe if you chew it," Bofur suggested and Thorin raised his eyebrowns. "It was just a suggestion." Thorin didn't feel like eating any mould or flowers so he handed it to Oin.

"_When the Black Breaths blows,"_ Balin started saying and they turned to look at him.

"_And death's shadow grows and all light pass, _

_come athelas! Come athelas! _

_Life to the dying _

_In the king's hand lying!"_

"What was that?" Dwalin asked as confused as everyone else was at that time.

"An old poem about the Kingsfoil I remember," Balin said straight-faced.

"What does it mean?" Fili asked in turn.

"It is said," Ori cut off, "that Athelas is most powerful in the hands of the king."

They all looked Thorin now. "Are you sure about that?"

"Quite much," Ori nodded hesitating a little bit. "At least among the men. But I suppose it works as well with the race of the dwarves too."

"You better be," the king said and slowly took the plant back from Oin's hand. He stared the small flowers for a second or too then he took a bite of them. The taste was awful but he chewed them as much as he could without gagging.

"Now put them to the wound," Oin guided and Thorin was revealed for that order. He quickly took the plant's parts out of his mouth and put them on the hobbit's shoulder wound. Then he spitted the rest to the ground, just to get the taste away.

"And now?" he wanted know.

"We can't do anything else," Oin stated as he watched the hobbit too. "We just need to hope it's working."

"Let's move then, the night is already upon us," Thorin said as he glimpsed at the darkening sky. Dwalin and Nori took their turns in carrying the hobbit and so they all continued walking toward the Esgaroth.

They reached the city a good while after the sundown. It was only because of the condition of the dwarf company; even though the road they found was easy to walk on they were so exhausted they stumbled every now and then. They hadn't sleep, eat nor drink much for days and it had a huge effect on them. And now they were right on the gates of their rescue.

Thorin pounded his fist to the wooden gate. At first there was no response for that so he did it again, with more force.

"Who is it?" a man's voice was heard beyond the gates.

"We are asking for help and an accommodation," the king answered. "We have one badly wounded among us."

"I asked who is it," the man stated through wood.

Thorin sighed irritated and tired. "My name is Thorin Oakenshield, son of Thrain."

The man on the other side was silent for a moment but then the gates opened. The dwarfs were now facing several tall men who in turn stared at the company of dwarves.

"We've got an order not to let anyone in after the sundown, but.." the spoken man hesitated.

"We just need food and shelter," Thorin said with respect. "And some help from your city's healer. I'm not asking anything more. Please."

The man's gaze moved to see the other dwarves and the hobbit who was still laying on the self-made stretcher.

"Very well, you can come in," the leading man nodded. "But I really hope you won't cause any troubles here."

"We won't," Thorin promised relieved. The men opened the gates more and all the dwarves walked in.

"Anardil, show them the way to the medical building and after that to one of the questhouses," the captain said and one of the other men stepped forward. "Please, follow him."

Thorin nodded to the gesture and the dwarf company started walking after the man. Quite soon they came in front of a large building.

"This is the city's only medical building," Anardil said to them. "The healer will take care of your.. wounded one."

"Can't we stay with him?" Thorin asked glancing the hobbit.

"Not all of you, she would be very furious," the man shook his head. "Only one or two may go at a time, the rest of you need to stay out."

"Fine," the king answered after doing a quick thinking and turned to the others. "Oin, you and me will take our bur- uhm, the hobbit, inside. Balin, you will come to get us later when you all have settled down." Both older dwarfs nodded in agreement. Thorin lifted Bilbo from the stretcher to his arms and so the rest of them followed the man toward the resting place. The three remaining went inside the sickhouse.

"Hello?" Thorin called out in the slightly lightened lounge area. "Anyone here? We need help!"

A woman in her 40's came to the room, dressed in some sort of a nightdress.

"What is it now? Don't you folk know that – " she cut off her sentence as she saw who had called for help. "Oh dear, what has happened?"

"We were attacked," Thorin explained as the woman came closer. "Spiders. Giant ones."

"My dear.." she whispered. "Not you too. I have told the citizens many times that it's not safe place anymore, the forest I mean."

The healer guided the two dwarfs into a room nearby. She lit an oil lamp and showed the bed where Thorin could put the hobbit down.

"Has he been awake?" she asked examining Bilbo.

"No. He's been unconsciouss for a good while," Thorin answered her.

"And we tried to buy time by using Kingsfoil," Oin added and the healer turned to them.

"Kingsfoil? Does it still grow there? I thought it was extincted!" she said wondering. "But it might have given the help you wanted. Now, I need some peace and quiet to work on this."

"Sure, my lady," Oin lowered his head and turned on his heels.

"Is he gonna be fine?" Thorin wanted to know before leaving. He had gotten warmed up for the burglar, slowly but steady, and didn't want to lose one of his comrades at this point. "You said earlier.. that something like this has happened before?"

The healer lady sighed deep. "Yes, indeed. A day before yesterday was the latest one. People had been patroling in the forest when they got attacked. Only few survived but during these latest months there have been several ones that have wounded in those conflicts."

"What happened to them then?"

"They got here too late," she shook her head sadly. "None of them survived, the poison was too strong for them to hold on to life. First they seemed to be stable but then suddenly.. they just died."

Thorin swallowed. "How soon.. can you tell if he's gonna make it?"

"I have no idea, my dear," she said apologetically. "It's always depending on the person. But I would say that in a day or two."

The king nodded. "Someone will come to see him tomorrow. Just send us a word if anything critical happens."

"Of course. Now, off you go! Both of you, or he won't heal at all," the lady said shooing them out and pulling curtains in front of the doorway.

The two dwarf walked out of the building, inhaling the fresh air.

"I have always hated the smell of infirmaries," Thorin admitted.

"I know," Oin smiled to him. "I remember how your father had to carry you in when you didn't want to. Oh that shouting.. I can still hear it in my half-deaf ears."

Thorin chuckled. "I bet you can."

The king looked up to the sky, the stars were twinkling as small shiny dots, far away.

"I know we can't do anything right now," he said eyes still towards the dark starblanket above them."But I really wish everything goes well."

Oin gave him a tiny small. "Me too, my king, me too."

They stayed where they were, admiring the sight they were given, and waiting for Balin to get back.

/ / /

Anardil finally reached the guesthouse where the dwarfs were supposed to stay the night. He pointed towards it. "This is it. We only have to offer you some floor space, if you don't mind. If you have come earlier we could have given you more. I will leave you by yourselves now."

"Thank you for your kindness," Balin nodded gently. "We will appreciate it grately."

The man just nodded and turned back where he had came from. Though he did couple of times glance at the dwarfs, just to make sure they didn't start any troubles.

But the company was exhausted because of the passed days so they just walked in. They lit few oil lamps to see the place better. It wasn't a huge building, just big enough for them to fit in. Balin left nearly immediately back to the infirmary while the others tried to make themselves comfortable to the wooden floor.

"Ow, my back hurts already," Dori commented as he sat down. Everyone agreed with him, rubbing their feet and backs.

"Does anyone have anything to eat?"

"I would want a good warm meal of pork chop and – "

"Oh shut up, Bofur! We are hungry!"

"Yeah! Soon you have to go to get something for us."

"Or Nori! He has the _ability_ to get something very easily."

"You bet!"

They were all so exhausted that they became slightly restless, shouting and laughing with loud voices. It all came to a stop when the door opened and the three remaining dwarfs walked in. Suddenly the house was quiet as a grave.

Thorin glanced at them with tiredness showing in his eyes.

"Get some sleep, we need all the rest we can get," he murmured and went to a clear spot on the right side of the room. And so they all laid down; it didn't take long until the air was filled with snoring.

The night went on but there was one dwarf in the room whose sleep wasn't restful at all. The dwarf tossed around in his corner placed "bed", quietly groaning in his sleep. After couple of minutes the dwarf next to the restless one slowly woke up to these sounds. Kili rubbed his eyes and half asleep turned his head toward his brother.

"Mmm.. Fili?" he mumbled dozing. But the elder didn't response to him, instead he kept moving and making silent noises.

Kili was wide awake now, realising that nightmares were disturbing the other one's sleeping. "Fili!" he hissed with a low tone. "Wake up! Or you gonna wake everyone else."

Kili shook his brother with his hand for a while before it made any change to the situation. The blond dwarf rose quickly to sit, gasping for air the way that seemed too familiar to Kili.

"Relax brother," Kili whispered, being now on his knees and keeping his hands on Fili's shoulders. "It's okay, it was just a dream."

"No, it wasn't," Fili said breathing heavily, sweat dropping along his left temple. "It wasn't a dream."

"What?" Kili asked whispering and glancing around if anyone else had awaken. But it was dark inside, for the sunrise was still far away and the light from the lamps had faded long time ago.

"It was the.. prophecy, Kili."

"What happened?"

"It's.." Fili hesitated a second. "A lot of bad things. Too bad. I can still feel it."  
"Feel what?"

"The... moment. Things happening, the feeling," the elder one changed his words in the middle of the sentence.

Kili sighed. "Look, you can tell me anything. You know that, don't you brother?"

"Yes I know. But this is something.. I can barely handle it myself, not to meantion if I told about it to you.. or to anyone else."

Kili didn't know what to say to help his brother in this issue. But he really wanted, and hoped, that the other half of him would say what was the matter so that he could do something. But because he didn't have words to say he wrapped his arms around his brother. Fili sighed deep and responsed to the hug with wrapping his own arms around the younger one.

"It's gonna be okay," Kili mumbled to Fili's ear.

"Yeah," the other one answered, knowing that it was a lie, before they separated from each others.

"Try to get some sleep, alright?" Kili said. "Thorin will be angry if we are dozing through the whole day."

They both smiled to this, remembering couple of those kind of situations from their past.

"Good night, brother," Fili said still smiling as he tousled Kili's hair.

"Hey!"

"Hush."

"Good night," Kili finally answered also smiling as he curled up to Fili's side. The younger one fell nearly immediately asleep but the other one stayed awake for a good long moment. Fili thought about the things they had experienced during this journey and about the other things that were possibly awaiting for them in the future.

He finally went back to the world of existing and non-existing things. But what neither of them had noticed was the dark hooded figure right behind the window near them; a person that was listening the discussion through the glass. The figure was like a shadow, moving without leaving a single noise behind.

It had finally found what it had been waiting for.

* * *

**A/N: Thoughts? Complains? Roses? ANYTHING? **


	10. Chapter 10: Is The Hobbit Alright?

**I am so so so so sorry! I know it has been way too long since I have updated and I have a bunch of excuses for that :D The first one is (surprise surprise) the lack of motivation, again. I will try to be a better person for that category for the rest of the chapters. The second excuse (I would prefer a real reason) is my summer job which is taking all of my energy. And then I have forgotten this for few days, apologies for that. **

**But as you can see I'm back! I already have some fresh ideas to the next chapters (and new stories) so I have reasons to believe that I will write the rest of this story much more faster. And for this chapter I tried something little bit different appearance so if you feel that the change is bad.. let me know. Enjoy! **

* * *

The morning came soon, maybe too soon for the exhausted dwarfs. Although they had slept nearly around the clock it seemed not to be enough. Even the king himself felt like he could just lay there all day long. But the duty called him and he forced himself up when the shining light was too much to his efforts of trying to get some rest. Thorin watched his company sleep on the floor. He wondered if he should just leave them to get some more sleep and go to see the city by himself but he hesitated. He decided that it was better if they sticked together so he first woke Balin up, gently by putting a hand to his friend's arm.

"What is it?" Balin asked half asleep.  
"It's nearly a midday, the sun is high," Thorin said. He walked to awake the others who mumbled complains about it but rose to sit, yawning and eyes still slightly closed. They all had aching body parts and with the daylight Thorin noticed few of them still had spider webs on their hair and beard. He gave them a moment to fully awake and then they all went outside.

There were lots of people in the area, meeting each other and exchanging different stuff. The place looked different than in the night time but Thorin lead his group to the way he thought the center was. They weren't noticed until they walked right beside someone; the men and women glimpsed the short company but tried to be polite and turn their gazes away as soon as possible. Apparently, there haven't been many dwarfs in Esgaroth. Soon enough they came to a little round 'lake' that was among the houses and Thorin drew a conclusion that they were near. He decided to ask little help.

"Excuse me," he cleared his throat to a lady near him.  
"It's the big one, with tall windows," she said without turning her gaze from her work before Thorin could even ask the question.  
He was speechless for few seconds. "Thank you," he finally managed to say and continued to the way she had pointed.  
"How did she know?" Dori whispered in confusion.  
"Maybe we aren't the first ones asking that same question," Bofur suggested from behind.

The company reached the biggest wooden building in that area and saw people going in and coming out.  
"I think this is the place," Thorin said to them. "Remember to behave."  
He pushed the doors open and marched in. The place was crowded with people, eather drinking and talking with loud voice or eating a good portions of food that smelled so good to the dwarfs' noses.  
Thorin walked through the place towards the end of the room; he felt little uncomfortable under the gazes they were given but he held his head high and moved with self-confidence.

"Aaah, the dwarfs," the man on the other side of the bar desk said when Thorin reached it. "I've already heard of you guys."  
"News appears to spread quickly here, I assume," Thorin said back.  
"Sometimes," the man said smiling and drying a glass. "What can I get you today?"  
"We actually don't have anything with us."  
"Oh, I see."  
"Is it possible to meet the Master of the Laketown?" Thorin wanted to know.  
"Of course. I think he's on the back right now, having his second breakfast today," the man smiled and pointed the way.  
"Thank you," Thorin nodded and turned to his company. "You wait here. It's better we all don't go there."  
And so the others sat down to wait until their leader would come back.

Thorin walked to the back area of the dining hall which was separated from the main space with a wall. He passed right next to the kitchen and soon heard a deep laughter and sounds of tableware somewhere ahead of him. He had met the Master few times before and Thorin really hoped the man was as kind as back then, otherwise they would be in trouble.

He finally came to the private lodge where the Master and someone else were having a meal. He walked closer and cleared his throat.  
"I'm sorry to interrupt your lunch," Thorin said after he had got the attention, "but I am asking for your time for a short discussion."  
The Master looked at the dwarf with intensive eyes. "You look slightly familiar to me. Have we met before?"  
"Yes, we have," Thorin answered. "A long time ago. I haven't actually been around for a while."  
"Ahhh, yes," the Master said and took a bite of one of the chicken legs he had on the plate. "You are a dwarf if i'm not extremely wrong. What is your name?"  
"Thorin."  
The man's movement stopped at tracks as he recalled the memory of that dwarven name.  
"Son of Thrain, of course!" the Master shouted and made a laugh. "I should have remember you from the first second you spoke but you know, i'm getting little old already," he winked at the dwarf and stood up.

Thorin gave him a smile. "You look exactly the same as the last time we met."  
"Now you are joking the hard time!" the Master laughed again as they shook hands. "You seem to have more colour in your hair."  
"Hard times."  
"I see. So, what brings you here, my friend?" the man said and sat back down. His companion had been silent the whole time and that person looked like he would have no intentions to speak.

Thorin was still standing at the same spot. "I have other dwarfs with me, we are just passing through but we could need some help with our travelling. We have come from very far and there have been lots of misfortune on the way, so to say. What I am asking for is some food and rest."  
The Master looked at dwarf from head to toes. "You don't look much healthy, I have to admit that. I assume you don't have anything with you to pay for what you are asking for?"

Thorin shook his head. "We are heading to get back our home. As soon as we have claimed it we will pay back everything."  
"Well, it sounds good to me," the Master said without thinking any further. "Please, you can use the other lodge there. I think it's better you have your meal here than in the hall, people there might not take lightly all of your.. table manners." As he had said it he burst into a laughing and continued his eating.  
"Thank you," Thorin nodded gracefully and headed back to the hall. He was relieved that everything had went so well. To his surprise the dining hall that was nearly full of people when they had arrived was now on the contrary nearly empty. And the reason was easy to spot. Or reasons.

Bombur was staring at the nearest persons (who were quite far because the closest tables had already emptyed) or actually at their meals, drooling with the hunger. Couple other dwarfs were looking at someones' elses plates, just staring like they would have been in trance or something. No wonder half of the customers had already left the place. Thorin thanked the Master of Laketown in his mind for the lodge area.

"Okay everybody, follow me!" Thorin raised his voice and the dwarfs noticed him. They quickly stood up and walked after their leader. As passing the worker behind the long desk Bofur made a small gesture of lifting his hat to the man. That man just closed his eyes and prayed the lord hoping that the dwarfs didn't come back soon. Thorin led his company to the big table that had been shown to him. There was already some food on it so the first ones started immediately gobbling everything they managed to touch as they sat down.

"Manners, remember the –" Thorin tried to discipline the dwarfs but no one seemed to listen to him. He sighed and sat down, too tired to whine about their eating habbits. He had to act like a king so he was much calmer with the eating than his comrades even though he too was starving at the moment. The staff brought them food during the next hour and they all ate with great eagerness, finally being so full they could only sit still or lean on their chairs and benches.

"Did you enjoy?" the Master of the Laketown asked while passing the dwarfs' lodge.  
"Yes, we did," Thorin answered with respect and thankfulness. "Thank you."  
"You should go to see the city, it's beautiful at this time of the year." And then the Master was gone. The dwarfs waited for a good while before they left the building. The weather was beautiful, the sky was light blue and the sun was shining brightly. Simply a very beautiful day as the man had said to them.

"I'm going to check how the hobbit is doing," Thorin said to the group. "Balin, would you come with me? The rest of you can eather wait here or walk around. Just don't get lost or cause any trouble."  
"Can't we come too?" Kili asked disappointed.  
"Yeah, we want to see our burglar too," Bofur nodded in agreement and the others nodded too.  
"Fine," Thorin said immediately and they all started walking towards the medical building. The city was kind of a maze, too many similar wooden houses and no signposts anywhere. Luckily they didn't have to rush.

"I'm going in first," the king said plainly as they finally reached the right building.  
"And I will join you laddie," Balin stated refering to the earlier. Those two stepped in as the rest of the group stayed outside.  
"Ahh, you again," the healer lady said when she saw Thorin. "I'm surprised you haven't come back earlier."  
"We took a proper rest," he answered. "How is the bur-.. eeh, the hobbit doing? Any better?"  
"Actually yes, he's very fine now," the woman stated as she walked in the room organizing her stuff. "He has already been awake. You can go to see him but be gentle. And don't disturb the others, I'm too busy to watch over you now."

The healer went to see some of her patients elsewhere in the building, Thorin and Balin headed to Bilbo's room. They didn't knock or anything, just walked in. The hobbit looked so tired and pale, weak. But that was understandable. As Bilbo heard the converging steps he slowly opened his eyes.

"Good morning little friend," Balin greeted smiling. Bilbo sighed deep but smiled back.  
"Good morning. Or is it a day already?" the hobbit asked feeling comfortable in the bed.  
"A day, actually." It was Thorin who answered that question. "How are you feeling?"  
Bilbo moved into sitting position. "Like some giant ugly creature would have scratched me with a sharp sting. You know, the usual."

Both dwarves chuckled to the comment. "It's nice to see you are alright," Balin nodded.  
"The lady said that it still can get worse," Bilbo said quietly.  
"We hope it won't, you have survived better than the rest," Thorin stated.  
"What?" Bilbo asked and became little terrified. "Who else –"  
"None of us," Balin interrupted seeing where this was going. "The residents of this town, some scouters among few past months."  
"Phew. I actually wasn't sure how many of you had managed to get out of there, the healer lady didn't have any information to tell me."  
"Don't worry, we are all alright," Balin smiled and put his hand on the hobbit's shoulder.

"The others are outside right now, waiting for a word from us that you are fine," Thorin said with his low tone. "If you want any other visitors.."  
"Sure sure, it's ok if they want to come," Bilbo answered the unasked question and continued with mumbling. "But I doubt why would they."  
Balin gave him a look.  
"We'll tell them that you are awake."  
Bilbo just nodded and the two dwarfs went back outside.

The group looked very impatient and it seemed like some of them would have nearly rushed towards Thorin and Balin.  
"Is he ok?" Dori asked curiously and Thorin could see all of their eyes glimmering desperately to hear the answer.  
"The burglar is fine," Thorin said with a nod and the dwarfs cheered in unison. "You can go to see him now. But only – "  
The whole group stormed in without listening what the king had to say.  
" – two at the time," Thorin shook his head as his company had vanished from his sight.  
"The healer lady will probably give a good lecture about that meeting," Balin stated as he moved next to his old friend.  
"That's very possible," Thorin admitted and sighed. "I just hope they won't do anything stupid in there." They sat down on bench near them and Balin offered a pipe to the king.

Bilbo was getting more relaxed in his bed but a sudden rumble startled him. The shock was however over soon when he understood that the noise was coming from the dwarf group that was now in his room.  
"Bilbo!" someone shouted happily and the company cheered again. "We are so glad to see you!"  
"No doubts for that," the hobbit mumbled. Kili was the first one who made his way to the bed and gave a tight hug for the burglar.  
"We were so worried about you," the youngest dwarf said and the others nodded. "It looked so bad."  
"I'm fine now," Bilbo said with comforting voice. "At least for a while. Nothing is sure yet." And after he saw the faces of the dwarfs react to what he had said he realised he shouldn't have said the last part out loud.  
"Anyway, what have I missed?"  
"Nothing, really," Dori stated with annoyance. "We didn't get even beds! You are lucky to have that soft looking one."  
"Be aware, he might just appear here when the night comes," Kili whispered to Bilbo.  
"I heard that!"

The dwarfs started talking at the same time, to each others or to Bilbo, the hobbit wasn't sure. But he couldn't hear any clear statements to answer to so he fell in his thoughts. He was still wearing his own clothing, and as he tried to feel the content of his certain pocket he understood that the something he was looking for was missing so he started to panic a little bit. The ring wasn't on any of his fingers (obviously) or in his pockets.  
"Where did I – " he mumbled to himself so quietly that no one else heard. And the images started flowing; images that he had already pushed aside from his mind. He could recall the moment when Kili saw him and the ring had vanished from his finger, only to realise that it was hanging in a web nearby. A place where the ring still was, waiting for someone to pick it up.

"Oh no," Bilbo said and just stared at his hands. He had lost his precious magic ring that he had finally learned to use.  
"What on earth is going on here?!" a high pitched voice of a woman echoed in a room and the hallway. All the discussion and talking died on that moment and they turned to see the healer lady looking at them with wide eyes.  
"Didn't I say that only two at the time?! Not half of the town! Get out!" she commanded and pointed the outdoor with her finger. "Now!"

Bilbo had never seen the dwarfs move so quickly from one place to another. But as funny as the scene looked like, among seeing their faces, he was little bit too tired to enjoy the moment. In the middle of that chaos one dwarf stayed in the room, the healer lady not noticing that, as she shooed the little men out. The hobbit gave him a questioning look.

"You aren't the only one who can disappear without anyone noticing," Nori winked at the hobbit.  
"Apparently not," Bilbo said slowly.  
"I noticed you were searching for something a minute ago."  
"Uhh, yeah. Just a.. little piece of my.. it's kind of a piece of luck that I need on this journey." The explanation wasn't as smooth as it could have been but Bilbo was off guard with the question and of course he couldn't truly reveal what he had lost.

"Does it look like – this?" Nori opened his fist and there it was, the ring!  
"W-where did you get that?" Bilbo stuttered as he managed only to stare at the little piece of jewel.  
"Found it from the forest," the dwarf answered. "I saw it glimmer in a web. And because those webs were fresh and you looked so lost with your empty pockets I made a conclusion."  
"And a good one too."  
"I could have kept it. You know, never tell you about it."

Bilbo moved his gaze to the dwarf next to him. "But you didn't keep it. And you told me. Why?"  
Nori made a small smile. "I think it's more use in your hands than mine, if you know what I mean. But it tempted me quite much, more than usually, so I think it's better to give it away even though I would regret it later."  
The hobbit gave a realived and graceful look to Nori. "Thank you." It was all he could say at the moment. He took the ring, stared at it for a moment feeling the warm and familiar presence, his heart so much lighter now and finally put it to his pocket.

As he was about to thank Nori again he noticed that the room was empty. And the healer lady's steps were coming closer. Even in the next morning Bilbo thought it had been a very weird dream but having the ring safely in his pocket told a different story.

/ / /

The dwarfs spent the day walking around the city and trying to get to know a little bit of the citizens life there; what they worked on, what they ate and so on. At some point their company had separated in few smaller groups but they continued their sight seeings.

"I have something to tell you, if I may," Dwalin said to Thorin as they walked side by side, Balin right next to him, and just a little further behind them were Oin and Gloin.  
"Mmm, and what is that?" Thorin asked in his thoughts, watching interested the forgeries and other weapon workshops that they passed.  
"I think a man followed us for a good while," Dwalin answered turning his gaze around negligently so that no one would turn any unnecessary attention to them or notice that he was searching for someone. "I lost the sight after we split up."  
"I saw him too," Balin admitted. "He looked suspicious."

Thorin stopped at his tracks and turned to look at his friends. "Are you sure about it?"  
"Definitely."  
"What did he look like?"  
"Big," Dwalin snorted. "For a human. Pitch dark hair."  
"What is it?" Balin asked seing Thorin's expression.  
"I might have seen him too," the king said thoughtfully. "Earlier, in the dining hall. And when we went to the medical building."  
"He looked like kind of a man that is hard to miss," Dwalin pointed out.

"I think it's better be safe than sorry," Thorin decided. "Which way did he go?"  
"Maybe to the south. I'm not sure, he disappeared a while ago."  
"Let's find him. I wanna see what is going on. If anything is."

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**Nothing kind of happened in this one but every story has those ones. I think the next one will be more exciting ;) Just a little bit, the full focus will be in the becoming chapters. And all of it won't be good :(  
So, what you liked? **


	11. Chapter 11: Mysterious Man

**A/N: Here it is, the next chapter! Do you know the feeling when you suddenly and accidentally find a random song and you just start listening it for hours repeatedly? Yeah, that happened to me recently. And why am I telling you this? It's because it had a huge part while writing this chapter. **

**I would say about 90 per cent of this chapter I listened this certain song (which means... hours!) so I can officially say that it's kind of a theme song for the chapter 11 :) The song is Seven Devils, by Florence & The Machine. I recommend ;) **

**It gets better and better the more you listen to it. I bumped into it when I watched a video from Youtube about Loki and that was the title. And I fell in love. **

**Anyway, enjoy! **

* * *

There were lots of people doing their businesses at that time of the day that the dwarfs had troubles moving forward. Though for Nori it was just perfect, he just hoped Thorin didn't find out anything. As the little group of Fili, Kili, Dori, Nori and Ori tried to walk together they noticed only moment later that they'd got separated from each others.

"Where are the others?" Kili asked behind his brother, glancing around for the search.  
Fili turned to look but couldn't see his friends anywhere. "We lost them," he stated.  
"Or they lost us," Kili added still searching.  
"Hilarious."  
"I'm always."

Fili rolled his eyes. "Just stay close to me, okay?"  
"Oh c'mon Fili, don't be like that," Kili smiled and started walking again. "Don't you trust these people?"  
"We shouldn't trust anyone here. And you're supposed to know that too. Haven't you listened anything Thorin has told us?"  
"What could happen here?" Kili challenged his brother.

"Hey," Fili grabbed his brother's arm, making him stop. "Don't play around, seriously."  
"Okay, okay," Kili defensed, surprised about his brother's reaction.  
"We have already one man down, so to say. I don't want to worry uncle more."  
"I said okay."  
Fili didn't know why he was so tensed, so he just decided to let it go this time.

They wandered around, visited some interesting little houses with working and fighting tools, food tasting and so on. It didn't take long until they smelled a scent of ale.  
"You smell that, Fili?" Kili got excited. "Someone has a heck of an ale party going on and I want there too!"  
"You can't just invite yourself into some strangers' party."  
"But if I ask nicely," Kili grinned. "Maybe they are kind to the strangers that are visiting their city. Come Fili!"

Kili tried to push himself harder through the crowd.  
"Kili, wait!" Fili attempted to follow his brother. "Kili!"  
But the younger one could be quite fast when he wanted. And now he really did. Fili let out a frushtrated sigh as he lost the sight of Kili. Because they were about half smaller than the humans, his view was totally blocked.  
"Damn you!" he cursed himself. Then he bumped hard into someone.

"Sorry!" he said only giving a quick glance to that direction.  
"Oh no, my apologies, I wasn't watching," the man stated. People weren't moving anywhere in front of Fili so he was kind of stuck there.  
"You are one of the dwarfs, right?" the man tried to start a conversation.  
"Right," Fili answered still not turning to face that guy. "I'm sorry but I'm little busy now."  
"Are you the only blonde one?"  
"What?" the dwarf asked confused.  
"Are you Fili?"

That was the moment he finally faced the man. And what a man he was.. Fili swallowed imperceptibly. The human was the hugest one he had ever seen. And with the dark hair and eyes he looked a bit terrifying.

"How do you know my name?" Fili asked suspiciously. He had never seen this man before.  
"Can we go little further to talk?"  
"Why? No offence but I don't tend to go with the strangers."  
"I understand," the man nodded. "But I have important message for you."  
Fili tried to look around if anyone from the company was nearby.

"None of them are in the area."  
"You might be lying."  
"Might be. You wanna take the risk?"  
"Who sent you?"  
"Does it matter?"  
"Who. Sent. You? Your last chance."  
"I have been speaking to the old wizard, Gandalf the Grey."

Fili stared at the man, thinking about the options he had. They hadn't heard about the wizard for a while, why would he want to send a message to _him_? The dwarf was still unsure whether to trust this strange man or not.  
"What is the message about?" Fili asked finally.  
"That thing that troubles you."  
Fili squinted to that response. Gandalf plus the problem he was suffering might just give the answers he had been wondering. He gave a last quick glance to the direction where Kili had disappeared and nodded to the man.

And so they vanished to one of the dark alleys.

/ / /

"Oh, that smells so good!" Kili said his thoughts out loud and followed the trace of delicious scent of ale. "You see Fili, we are near!"  
But he didn't know that the older brother wasn't following. He walked further, though his speed was slowing down quite much. He finally made it to the little wooden building where the scent was coming. Outside of it was a man presenting what they had in their selection.

"Good morning young man," the man greeted when he noticed Kili was interested. "I see you have found the best place in the city!" He winked at the dwarf.  
"I agree with that!" Kili grinned. "Me and my brother just wanted to see what do you have here."  
"Well, we have lots of stuff here. Would you like to taste some?"  
"Definitely!"  
"Aaaand here you go. This ale is made from the local ingredients, best quality you can find nowadays."

Kili took a good snifter from the mug he had been given. "Ahh, that's perfect!"  
"Nice to hear. Would your brother also want some? Is he nearby?" the man was taking another mug and glanced to the surroundings, trying to spot another dwarf.  
"Sure he wants!" Kili said and turned around but didn't see his brother anywhere. "Fili?" He turned back to the salesman. "Did you see where he went?"  
"You came alone," the man shrugged apologetically.

"Fili!" Kili called for his brother but not given any answers. He decided to go back to the way he had come from, though there was this one problem: he wasn't sure where he had come from. Everything looked the same from the ground level and because everyone else were so much taller than him, he didn't have a good view to anywhere.

"Damn you, Fili," he muttered to himself and continued his search. But he knew that the possibility to find another dwarf from the crowd was nearly impossible.

/ / /

"Don't be like that Nori," Dori whined at this brother. "You know it's a great risk and I don't want us to be in trouble."  
"Just a little bit, it won't hurt anyone," Nori defensed himself. Ori just stood next to them, not interrupting their discussion, if that was a right term to use. The three of them were in the market area, just doing a little sight seeing, for they had absolutely no money with them and not even any stuff to trade with something else.

"Not that way," Dori tugged Ori's arm.  
"Hey, isn't that Fili over there?" Nori asked suddenly.  
"Where?" Dori asked and glanced the way his brother was watching, not able to see anyone familiar face.  
"There," Nori pointed behind a big house. "He's with someone else. I can't see who it is."  
"Ah, the little troublemakers are on a mission. Maybe it's better not to interfere into anything they do."

"It's not Kili," Ori stated confidentally.  
"What? Are you sure about that?" Dori stared harder at the distance.  
"I – I'm quite sure. He's in the shadows but it looks like someone way bigger person. You see, Fili is looking up."  
"You're right," Dori nodded. "Should we go there?"  
"I don't know."

They watched the scene for ten seconds. "Naah," Nori said then. "It doesn't look threatning, let's go."  
"If you say so.."

/ / /

Thorin walked determinedly forward, trying to get a glimpse of other dwarfs that were somewhere around the city.  
"We need to get higher," Thorin stated after a good while of search of his company.  
"There's a balcony," Balin said pointing the way with his head. The building appeared to be a public museum and gallery so they had a free entry there.

Thorin glanced over the area below them and spotted familiar figures right away.  
"Dori, Nori and Ori are over there," Dwalin noticed. "But I can't see anyone else."  
They searched the area with their eyes but everyone seemed to be just humans.  
"Wait!" Balin called out as Thorin was already leaving before the three on the ground would disappear. "I think I just saw Kili there."

"Where?" Thorin asked when he was back on the edge.  
"Next to the reddish flag. But he's alone."  
"Where is Fili? Can anyone see him?"  
Both Dwalin and Balin had to give a negative answer.

"They are never separated," Thorin said with knowledge. "Never. So where is Fili? He has to be nearby."  
But they didn't see the older dwarf anywhere.  
"It looks like Kili is searching for him," Balin said and they all glanced at the dwarf. Kili tried to look around him, turning his head around and it looked like he didn't know where he was going.  
"It's better we go there," Thorin mumbled shaking his head. "Before he losts himself there entirely."

They walked back down and outside, hoping that Kili still was near the place he just was. And the luck was on their side.  
"Kili!" Thorin called out his nephew and the dwarf heard it.  
"Thorin! I lost Fili!" Kili explained after he managed to get next to the three.  
"He's not in this area," Balin said.  
"How do you know that?"  
"We were eyeing the area from above."  
"We will find him," Thorin said with confident. "He can't be far."

They decided to go to the direction where they had seen the three other dwarf, hoping to find them and ask if they had any clues on Fili's whereabouts. They wandered there as a group for a good while but didn't bump into any dwarf.

"Hey hey hey!" they heard a shout somewhere behind them. "We have some buddies here!"  
They all turned around to see Gloin's red beard.  
"How did you get here?" Dwalin asked confused because they had not noticed him or Oin before.  
"By walking," Gloin answered. "Have you ever heard about anything like that?"  
"Ha ha," Dwalin smacked playfully Gloin's arm.

"Did you happen to see anyone on your way?" Thorin asked the two old dwarf.  
"Yeah, actually we did. Nori and his brothers passed us just a minute ago."  
"Where?"  
"Ehm, somewhere.. there.." Gloin waved his hand to the direction they had come from.  
Thorin rushed away before anyone could stop him.  
"And there goes the King who always tells others to wait while he himself goes straight to the battle," Balin shook his head.

Thorin came back after five minutes.  
"They had seen him," Thorin said to the group. "Behind that building." They turned their gazes to look.  
"Did you lost someone?" Oin wanted to know.  
"The other little troublemaker," Dwalin grinned and Thorin sneered at the statement.  
"Hey!" Kili protested out loud.  
"Let's go," Thorin said. "I wanna know what is going on. Ori said he had seen someone with Fili and I have bad feeling about that."

/ / /

"Are you sure about that?" Fili asked the man he was talking to.  
"Yes. I know it's a lot to ask but you need to trust me on this."  
"I do trust." They shared a look. Suddenly the man turned a little bit to his right side.  
"What is it?" Fili asked alarmed.  
"Your friends. They are coming here. I have to go," the big man said and made a move to leave the place.

"So this is the last time I see you?"  
"I'm afraid so. Just do what you feel like, I can't give you any other advice right now."  
"But I don't know what I am supposed to do!" Fili cried out desperately. "I don't understand this!"  
"I'm sorry," the man apologied and walked away. Fili didn't know whether to follow him or not but he didn't have to make that choice.

"Fili!" his brother called from the distance. "Where have you been?"  
"Uh, oh..." the blonde tried to make up some excuse for his brother as he walked toward. But as he saw his uncle and couple other dwarfs the idea vanished completely.  
"Sorry, I, uh, I might have gone to the wrong way," Fili explained. "I lost you and I didn't know where you went."  
"What are you talking about? You knew exactly where I was going," Kili frowned.

The dwarf was speechless.  
"You were seen with someone," Thorin said plainly, not with a pleasant voice. "Who was it?"  
"Just someone who wanted to talk to me, okay," Fili defensed himself. "Nothing serious."  
"It was the giant, wasn't it?" Dwalin asked in turn and Fili didn't know what to say.  
"You of all should know not to go with dangerous strangers," Thorin accused.

"He isn't dangerous."  
"How can you know that?"  
"Because I just know!"  
"You just met him, you can't trust him. He has been following us for a good while!"  
"He was looking for me!" Fili's words got the others fall in confused silence.

"What did he want?" Thorin demanded an answer from his nephew and took couple steps toward the young dwarf.  
"To help. As simple as that. He had a message from Gandalf," Fili said stubbornly.  
Thorin squinted his eyes.  
"It doesn't consider any of you. At least not directly. So I am not going to talk about this with you now." And so he started to walk away.

"Fili, don't do this," Kili tried to stop him and grabbed his brother's arm. "Do not make him mad," he whispered. They both knew what their uncle was like when he got mad at someone.  
Fili bit his teeth together. "I can explain it later, okay?" He and Thorin had a small eye contact competition, in which neither of them wanted to give up.

"You won't meet him again," Thorin said finally. "From now on, you won't be out of my sight. In any occasion, are we clear?"  
"You got to be kidding me," Fili murmured angrily.  
"Are we clear?" Thorin repeated himself.  
Fili didn't want to give the answer right away. "Yes, we are."

Kili and Balin shared a look, and the older one just shrugged apologetically to the other one. This was just weird to Kili's point of view, he couldn't understand why the two of them had so suddenly gotten into a fight, just like as they were kids.

They all walked in silence back to sunnier area. No one dared to open their mouth for the King had a determined and pissed off expression on his face.

/ / /

Thorin hadn't lied when he had said that Fili wouldn't be out of his sight. Everywhere Fili went, either Thorin ,or someone he had authorized to look after the young dwarf, was following him. All the time. The company had spent few other days in the Lake-town, just to get enough rest and food. And of course to wait until Bilbo was feeling well enough. They visited the hobbit everyday at least once, and the halfling looked much better day after day.

Finally came the day when Thorin decided they were ready to leave the city and continue their journey.  
"Good to see you, Bilbo!" Bofur greeted when the halfling joined the company outside the medical building. Some of the dwarfs tapped Bilbo on the shoulder or gave a nod.  
"It's good to see you too," Bilbo answered and stretched his limbs. All the laying had made him stiff even though he had been allowed to get off the bed sometimes. The healer lady was very nurturing.

The Master of the Lake-town came to see Thorin and his companions.  
"I'm sorry to hear that you already have to leave," the man said. "But we would like to help you out a little bit."  
"We don't have anything to pay with," Thorin stated quickly, not wanting to have any more debts on him. "At least not yet."  
"I have known you and your kindred for so long time, I wish you nothing but good. I will give you horses to travel with and a lot of food and clothes. The nights can be cold at some places."  
"Thank you," Thorin bowed slightly. "We will appreciate it, we won't forget your kindness. You will get your repayment as soon as we claim back our home."  
The Master nodded. "Good luck with your journey. Be safe."

Some guards brought the horses, or ponies, to the gates. Few ponies had baskets full of different kind of food, couple others some clothes. The dwarfs and Bilbo climbed on the ponies and waved for a goodbye.

They traveled through the fields and deserted open areas. Slowly but surely they moved forward, taking some short breaks to eat, drink and rest. Bilbo was still just a little bit weak from the attack and poisoning, but he gathered his strength along the travelling. The mountain grew larger and larger the closer they got.

After two days they finally were close and it could be seen on the dwarfs' face.  
"We are home," Thorin sighed out loud. "Finally."  
"After all these years," Balin shook his head in slight disbelief. "But we still need to find the way in. Without that.."  
"I know, Balin, I know." They had stopped for few seconds to watch the sight that spread in front of them all. Some became excited, some just smiled happily. They continued to reach their destination.

But what they didn't noticed was the single figure at the distance that was observing the coming company. Quickly it disappeared from the sight and rushed a long way to see his Master.  
"I have good news," the creature announced proudly as it found his way back to the 'head quarter'. "The dwarfs are here."

* * *

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